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When the enemy is neglected, he does his utmost to oppress us with sloth, and afterwards disarms us by terror; so that, ere the engagement has commenced, we are vanquished.

And if we could be vanquished (which earlier you have agreed is ultimately impossible), perhaps this would be true.

But with the Holy Ghost as our inerrant guide, it is not possible for believers in the Triune God to be defeated. Christ has promised us that very thing. "Believe and you shall be saved."

In your heart, b-d, I don't think you are fearful for your salvation. Fearful of Almighty God, yes. But truly fearful of Satan, not you. Not me. Not any Christian who understands the battle has already been won by His resurrection. BC/AD. The whole world was transformed by His birth.

We need to be strong, confident, wary of Satan and incorruptible to his lies, ashamed of our weaknesses and diligent in our faith, all by the grace of God.

And from an evangelical standpoint, how much more productive is it to declare "Fight on because we win," rather than "Stumble on because we might lose?"

If Christ has "overcome the world," and He is in us, what do we really fear?

"I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." -- Galatians 2:20-21

Look, Sunday is coming and I have to finish preparing for two classes I have to teach and quite frankly, I don't want us to leave tonight still debating something we all agree on, except we interpret it in different terms because of our experiences and teachings. The quote from the commentary is from Calvin's "Sermons on Ephesians". As you can see he takes the warfare seriously as I'm sure all of us here do or we would not be so serious about the weapons of our warfare and the security of knowing that no matter how intense the fight with the enemy, our Captain will never leave us on the field defenseless, or unsure of the ultimate victory.

Be sure to thank Him in the morning for keeping us safe during the night when we are most vulnerable.