No. It is not. No one living can claim anything of the kind. 4. Has God's revelation, as given in the Bible, reached all men? No. After thousands of years it is not yet known to one-half the human race. 5. Is God's revelation of the relations between man and God true? I claim that it is not true. For the word of God makes it appear that man was created by God in His own image, and that man sinned against God. Whereas man, being only what God made him, and having only the powers God gave him, _could_ not sin against God any more than a steam-engine can sin against the engineer who designed and built it. 6. Is the ethical code of the Bible complete, and final, and perfect? No. The ethical code of the Bible gradually develops and improves. Had it been divine it would have been perfect from the first. It is because it is human that it develops. As the prophets and the poets of the Jews grew wiser, and gentler, and more enlightened, so the revelation of God grew wiser and gentler with them. Now, God would know from the beginning; but men would have to learn. Therefore the Bible writings would appear to be human, and not divine. Let us look over these points again, and make the matter still clearer and more simple. If the children of an earthly father had wandered away and forgotten him, and were, for lack of guidance, living evil lives; and if the earthly father wished his children to know that they were his children, wished them to know what he had done for them, what they owed to him, what penalty they might fear, or reward they might ask from him; if he wished them to live cleanly and justly, and to love him, and at last come home to him--what would that earthly father do? He would send his message to _all_ his children, instead of sending it to one, and trusting him to repeat it correctly to the others. He would try to so word his message as that all his children might understand it. He would send his children the very best rules of life he knew. He would take great pains to avoid error in matters of fact. If, after the message was sent, his children quarrelled and fought about its meaning, their earthly father would not sit silent and allow them to hate and slay each other because of a misconception, but would send at once and make his meaning plain to all. And if an earthly father would act thus wisely and thus kindly, "how much more your Father which is in Heaven?" But the Bible revelation was not given to all the people of the earth. It was given to a handful of Jews. It was not so explicit as to make disagreement impossible. It is thousands of years since the revelation of God began, and yet to-day it is not known to hundreds of millions of human beings, and amongst those whom it has reached there is endless bitter disagreement as to its meaning.