Mark Of The Beast: Apocalyptic Prophecy

Revelation 13: 15-17

The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.  

Positive Thinking

1. Your boss delays confirming your 'Employee-On-Trial' status from 'Trainee' to 'Permanent' long past its due date. Reason given is the boss wants to discuss your new terms face-to-face and doesn't know when he will be back from an overseas trip.

Positive View: Oh, he wants to give you the good news in person, congratulate you, shake your hand and maybe even take you out for lunch (his treat).

2. Your salary remains more or less the same even after years and years of dedicated service. No reason is given as no questions are asked, but if asked, your boss will probably justify it as follows:

i)   You are not married and have no children-related expenses to worry about.

ii)  You also have no aged parents depending on you for financial support. 

iii) You also have no car loans / housing loans / etc. to worry about.

iv)  Etc., etc., etc.

Positive View: Oh, he wants to surprise you with a big year-end bonus maybe inclusive of company shares in line with the company's long-service employee reward scheme.

3. A female colleague who's normally friendly and approachable is suddenly cold and withdrawn.

Positive View: Relax. She's probably having her period and will be back to being her normal self in a day or two.

An Analogy

Once upon a time, there lived a king who was also a shrewd businessman, so shrewd he held the arms manufacturing and healthcare industry monopoly throughout the entire kingdom in the palm of his hands.

Naturally, in order to safeguard his business interests, he always opposed gun control laws every time some idiot politician proposed them, usually always following in the footsteps of a high casualty rate school shooting incident and the like, and never intervened, at least not wholeheartedly, whenever local tribes or warlords went to war with each other, as every bullet fired from a gun was another dollar in his pocket, regardless of whom it struck, or killed, innocently or otherwise.

Again, naturally, in order to safeguard his business interests, he was always reluctant to endorse new health-related procedures, treatments or products, vaccines included, except for one or two medical products he personally used and  publicly endorsed, for obvious reasons, as every sick individual in one of his hospitals or clinics was another dollar, or handful of dollars, in his pocket.

Of course, as in the case of all fairy tales, this too was a work of fiction.