HE SCENARIO Thus says ManitarI (“Mawnitawr’ee”): We mushrooms and unbelievers in Jesus Christ have some things in common, things in common, some things in common. We love the dark, see how we shrink away from the light—it really, really bothers us. And get this—we thrive on dead things! That’s right, dead things, yes. And see how fast we multiply, and ever set our heels and congregate in big numbers. Now how about this, we will flat “pop up” out of nowhere and bang, some of us will kill you if you ingest our stuff, though we look nice, and innocent enough, against the backdrop do we not ha ha ha ha? And we come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, just for you! Yes we do yes we do, just for you ha ha ha (Fig. 1). Ouch and double ouch Manitari; we need to have a talk.
In the outworking of this scenario please be sensitized to the telltale signs that betray unbelievers, as follows:
SENSITIVITY POINTS UNDER CONSIDERATION
1. Unbelievers are averse to Truth, God’s Reality, even the Light of the same in the face of Jesus Christ. (Too much heat.)
2. Unbelievers thrive on dead things, by definition.
3. Unbelievers dominate the landscape.
4. Unbelievers are drawn to one another, form symbiotic relationships with their environs.
6. The Destroying Angels, wild killer mushrooms.
7. Notwithstanding all the negative, Mushroom Fields are the Fertile Fields of Salvation.
DISCUSSION
1. Why do mushrooms “hate” if you will light? For starters, they do not need light to survive; imagine such a constitution. This makes them quite different from green plants indeed. Essentially, the heating and attendant drying effect of light soon robs a mushroom of the moisture its spores need to reproduce (a complicated process; we use the terms spore, reproduction, quite loosely here, skirting the technicalities). Why does the unbeliever (the “unbelieving mushroom” if you will) hate light? The unbeliever hates light because it exposes their evil, to themselves, and to others, and the effect of that exposure is hardly any different than in a mushroom proper, for it heats them up, with the same drying potential as mentioned, and that is to be avoided at all costs says the unbeliever—they are going to remain in and reproduce their unbelief no matter what. Unbelievers hate penetrating, sobering Truth, they espouse their own truth. An unbeliever’s truth is that which suits them best right now, oftentimes laced with fantastic secular and/or superstitious religious justifications. (John 3:19-21, 2Corinthians 4:4).
2. This point is not pretty to be sure, but it is true sad to say. Fungi that produce mushrooms feed on dead and decomposing organic matter and living organisms like insects, plants, and even other fungi. Not a pretty picture. Does the unbeliever thrive any differently? Not much, because they thrive on anything but Jesus Christ, very Life (John 14:6). The unbeliever is an atheist, and they thrive on the things that atheists thrive on, which is anything non-God. They love not their Lord God Jehovah with all their heart, soul, and mind, no way, rather, they love everything else but Him, and that list is too long for this space. Dead things chowder. Mushroom-esque. Bon appe’tit?
3. Once spilled on the ground (by the thousands), myriad mushroom spores get carried along by the wind and insects; in this way mushrooms propagate themselves from generation to generation and from place to place. But not all spores sprout where they land. This is almost a perfect picture of how unbelief in Jehovah manifests from generation to generation and from place to place. It is like an unbelief-predisposed spore being carried along and propped up and promoted by the wind of false religion, by secular focus on the here and now, secular lies about Jesus Christ and His Word, about heaven and hell and eternity. And no less unbelief gets carried along and propped up and promoted by Satan’s cronies, little know-it-all insect pests that have themselves been hoodwinked unto eternal damnation. It is good news however that though they be a spore unto unbelief and its attendant evil in keeping with their own evil nature, not all buy into this unbelief by the grace of God; yea, those predestined to be His for eternity. But only a handful do not sprout unto unbelief upon landing, despite the overwhelming odds that would suggest otherwise (their own default evil nature + evil environs = staggering odds mentioned). This is a testament to the power of God to accomplish His purposes for His own in the face of the evil from within and from without that literally inundates these once-upon-a-time unbelievers.
4. Mushrooms form symbiotic relationships with their environs, particularly with plant roots via the entanglement of the plant roots and the mushroom mycelium Fig. 2). Mushrooms absorb water and nutrients from the soil via the large dendritic surface area of the mycelium, which is transferred to the plant roots; in turn sugar is transferred from the plant roots to the mushroom. Symbiotic entanglement. Who gets what and why in the spiritual sense in keeping with the mushroom-unbelief analogy we have been developing? For starters, the symbiosis in that context is between Satan and the unredeemed Fallen. Satan is the quintessential fungi in this picture, even mushroom. He is after the plants’ good sugar, God’s Sugar breathed into them. He gets (steals) a little sugar here, and a little sugar there, from some of the plants so-called, from God’s Planting, and in turn the plants, the withering ones, they get some Godless mojo from the head fungi, earthy, soil-stuff, watered-down eye polish that dazzles for a moment, that flat thrills them to death down here in the land of sin and sorrow. Godless mojo that exceedingly thrills them just now, yet unto their eternal death ever united with their fungi-daddy Satan.
5. Mushrooms comprise a kingdom, alongside animals and plants. They live in fungal networks or threads, largely concealed inside their food. They appear suddenly, they “pop up” upon fruiting when the conditions are just so. How apropos the picture. Jehovah-Godless unbelievers are a kingdom to themselves, alongside the Beloved of God. They lie concealed in their networks alongside the faithful Beloved of God, like tares amongst the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30). In this manner these two disparate kingdoms grow together until each fruits, and then comes the harvest, either unto eternal life, or eternal damnation.
6. Wild mushrooms are extremely dangerous. Some of these mushrooms contain toxic substances that can kill a person, typically in three stages: a gut-wrenching food poisoning-like stage that lasts for 6-24 hours, than a “calm before the storm” stage wherein all seems well again, then about 48 hours after the pseudo “all is well again” stage began, the real storm hits, with organ failure and death in some cases. Leading the way in North America is the “Destroying Angels” variety (Aminata bisporigera, there are over 600 types of these wild mushrooms; they are very hard to distinguish from safe-for-human-consumption mushrooms, Doctor’s Health Press). The “destroying angels” are all about, in the secular world for sure, and in the Church. At first glance they are hard to discern, but their fruits betray them. The fruit of chronic unbelief in Jesus, the Gospel, ripens unto such fruit as covetousness, deceit, idolatry, gossip and slander, perversion, rage, stealing, denying the virgin birth of Jesus and His deity, mocking Jehovah God, tampering with God’s Word, and on and on it goes. If one consistently consumes this fruit and makes it one’s preferred diet said three stages are guaranteed to follow in the spiritual sense. Let us be wise and not go there.
7. Notwithstanding, Mushroom Fields are fertile ground for Salvation. Where else but these Mushroom Fields must the Gospel be sown? There are none that are righteous of themselves, no not one; all of us fit into these mushroom fields in some way, maybe a little, maybe a lot, and therefore all of us need Jehovah God’s blessed Salvation. We mean to say, we all were or maybe still are a “Godless mushroom” doing its own thing, hell bound full speed ahead without a course-altering Savior, but for the saving grace of our great Savior and God Jehovah. Yea, grace that plucked us out of the Mushroom Fields, with not a little sobering, severing pain, and into His Heavenly Harvest. Let us get out of and stay out of the Dark and get into and stay in the Light; let us no longer thrive on dead things, but rather on the Living One (John 14:19, 17:1-3), and the Eternal Life He grants us through His Great Sacrifice for us motivated by His exceeding love for us (John 3:16). He created us for Light and Life, not Darkness and Death.
So, into which kingdom do you belong dearest reader? Are you a light-loving, living green plant like unto a Child of Jehovah God, or a darkness-loving, death pale mushroom like unto the unsensitized ManitarI (“A Letter of Invitation”)?
Praised be your Name in all the earth great Jehovah God. Amen.