All the combined enterprise of centuries of human opposition and counter argument against the knowledge of God remain, at best, a passing vapour, and an empty pretence. For isn’t all pretence like the posturing of a peacock? An affair of all plumage and no substance? Being the kind of posturing that is “just for show”?

     And like the puffed-up peacock, isn’t the puffed-up posturing of every specious argument that, “just for show”, exalts itself against the knowledge of God, nothing more than an exercise in vanity? For isn’t vanity the province of excessive pride in or admiration of the “appearance” of one's own arguments?

     And, therefore, isn’t a pretence that, for the “sake of appearances”, argues wholeheartedly against “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” of God, then in fact, not a lie? Being a lie, first to self, and then for the audience of others? And of every lie, whether unto the regard of one's own appearances or that of a neighbour, do we not have this assurance, that no matter how strong a lie appears to be, it will always be weaker than the truth?

     Doesn’t this say a great deal for "the father of all lies"? In fact, a millennia of posturing by hordes of demonic subordinates against the knowledge of God has proved only one thing. That the first sign of an abdicated mind and a seared conscience is when you begin to believe your own lies. The devil’s entire kingdom is established upon nothing else than the puffery of pretension and the vanity of lies. His excessive admiration of self and his station is the false claim of pride to a position and a posture that belongs entirely and exclusively to another.

     For isn’t all pride nothing else but vanity? And was it not for the “vanity of self” that the devil postured unto himself like a pompous and bloated peacock? Being puffed-up in the deception and delusion of the pride of his own self-importance? Which is a false sense of one’s own station and standing? Which is when appearances move to supersede reality as truth. Which is when all the scaffolding of a sound mind begins to evaporate and collapse.

     At the end of the day, ANY argument, or action of man, that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, is simple pretence and puffed-up vanity. For any word or action that falls short of "the way, and the truth, and the life" is pure counterfeit. And for all those who trust the counterfeit of their own reasoning, and the idol of their own lies, God has this one thing to say: “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” (Job 38:3).

For it is a truly fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 10:31