Does 1st John 5:7 Support the Trinity Teaching?
1) Direct Answer
No. 1 John 5:7 does not teach three co-equal persons. It declares one God bearing witness in a threefold way—“these three are one.”
2) Scriptural Explanation
The verse says, “There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” Notice it does not say “three persons.” It says Father, Word, and Holy Ghost—and then, “are one.”
Now notice:
- “The Word was God… And the Word was made flesh” (John 1:1,14). The “Word” is God Himself expressed, and when the Word was made flesh, that’s the Son. The Son is the body God dwelt in; the indwelling was God.
- Jesus said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30).
- “God was manifested in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16).
- “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
- “Hear, O Israel; the LORD our God is one LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
- The Great Commission speaks of one Name, not three names: “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). One Name because it’s one God revealed.
Also compare verse 8: “there are three that bear witness in earth… and these three agree in one.” On earth they “agree in one.” In heaven they “are one.” That’s not three beings forming a committee; that’s the one God witnessing of Himself.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- If this taught a Trinity of persons, why does it say “Word” in heaven instead of “Son”? Because Sonship is the Word made flesh in time; “Word” is what He was before incarnation. The Son had a beginning as to the body; God did not.
- If they were three persons, why end with “these three are one,” not “three persons in one God”? The text itself presses unity of the one God, not plurality of persons.
- One Name (Matthew 28:19), one Lord (Deuteronomy 6:4), one God manifested in flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). It’s not three Gods, and it’s not three persons—it’s one God revealing Himself as Father (above us), Word/Son (with us), and Holy Ghost (in us).
Short Reinforcing Statement
1 John 5:7 is a oneness witness: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost are not three separate persons, but one God making Himself known.
Existing Follow-Up Answers
- Some Say 1st John 5:7 as It Reads "Father, Word and Holy Ghost", Was Not in the Original Text and Is an Alteration to the Bible. What Do You Say?
1) Direct Answer I receive 1 John 5:7 as Scripture as it stands. It is not an alteration to me; it is the Word of God, and it perfectly agrees wi
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What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Why I'm against organized religion
62-1111E §42
...ore than a prophet, He was the Word and the shining light of the Word! He was God shining through an instrumentality, proving that it was God in the man. He was the Word. I John, the 1st chapter... St. John, 1st chapter, rather, says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." And here was the Word of God shining through this little frail frame of a man, and it blinded the organization. But He come to get individuals. More tha...
What was the Holy Ghost given for?
59-1217 §36
Now, let me finish reading John 14:12. Now, in the fourteenth chapter and twelfth verse, Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth (and you cannot believe...) believeth on me..." You can believe unto Him. How many understands that, say, "Amen!" You remember in Acts 19 (I hate to stop this here, but I just have to say it as it comes to me), in Acts the 19th chapter when this Baptist preacher, which was a lawyer and was converted... And he was preaching and getting people saved, and they had grea...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 8:E-50
...ness and all manner of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying,Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter...
The resurrection of Jairus' daughter
54-0331 §12
...stated that He only did what the Father told Him to do ... what the Father showed Him in visions. Jesus saw visions, and only worked as God showed Him by visions only. St. John 5:19, He said, "Verily, verily I say unto you the Son can do nothing in Himself, but what He sees the Father doing, that doeth the Son likewise."---just what the Father showed Him, and nothing else. Nothing could He do except, first, God reveal it. So, three is a witness. For it's written in the law that three is a confirmation. In the mout...
Show us the Father
61-0521 §95
...nother thing. God tells me that on your heart you're praying for somebody else. That's a friend that's dying, that's got cancer. They don't live here. They live in Fort St. John and the person's shadowed with a dark shadow. That person is a sinner, dying with cancer, thus saith the Lord. Are those things true? Raise up your hand. Now is there a shadow of doubt in your mind? Is He Jesus Christ? Is God among his people? Do you believe, sister? Take that same handkerchief with you, lay it on the person and don't doubt...