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 with the whole Bible’s witness of one God revealed as Father, Word (made flesh as the Son), and Holy Ghost.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- God guards His Word: “Forever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89). “The word of our God shall stand for ever” (Isaiah 40:8). “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
- The wording fits John’s own vocabulary and theme:
- “In the beginning was the Word… and the Word was God… And the Word was made flesh” (John 1:1,14).
- John’s subject in 1 John 5 is the threefold witness: “This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ… it is the Spirit that beareth witness” (1 John 5:6). Verse 7 gives the heavenly witness; verse 8 gives the earthly witness. That’s John’s pattern of testimony.
- And the truth it declares is taught everywhere else: “Hear, O Israel; the LORD our God is one LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4). “God was manifested in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- If “Father, Word, and Holy Ghost” were an intrusion, why does it fit John’s own language (“Word”), his theme of witnesses, and the immediate parallel of verse 8?
- If someone removes verse 7, does the Bible stop teaching one God manifested in Christ? No. The same truth stands in many clear passages.
- The harmony of verse 7 (“these three are one”) with verse 8 (“these three agree in one”) shows a deliberate, Spirit-given structure: one God’s heavenly witness, and His witness in the earth.
Short Reinforcing Statement
I stand with the Scripture as written. 1 John 5:7 is a true, Spirit-breathed witness of the one God—Father, Word, and Holy Ghost—these three are one.
Ask a Follow-up Question
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.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 2:E-34
...is dramatically depicted here. They are all drawing from the same source. They have all been dipped into the same bowl. They are dead to themselves and their lives are hid with Christ in God. They are sealed in by the Holy Ghost. Ephesians 4:30, "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." No man can pluck them out of His hand. Their lives cannot be tampered with. The visible life is burning and shining, giving light and manifestations of the Holy Ghost. The inner, invi...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 4:E-102
To further bring out what we have just said, and to also use a Scripture that should be borne in mind as we talk about who it is that is baptized with the Holy Ghost, see what Jesus says in John 6:45, "It is written in the prophets, And they shall All be taught of God." But turn to Isaiah 54:13 whence this is taken and it reads, "And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord." The ALL of God are the CHILDREN of God. Thus it is that the evidence of being a true child of God, (he whom the Spirit has come upon and...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 4:E-109
Now when God is silent we had better be silent. But where He has spoken we had better speak, too, and say what He has already said. He told us the evidence, or what would happen after being baptized with the Holy Ghost was that we would have the Teacher come and teach all truth. But that Teacher was an INSIDE teacher, not an outside teacher. If the Spirit wasn't inside, you wouldn't hear the truth and receive it by revelation if you heard it every moment of the day. That was the sign of the indwelling Spirit in the...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 4:E-95
God came down in a blood cell, not through a man, but by the Holy Ghost, and in that virgin womb a tabernacle for the purpose of death was built. The Seed of the woman came in order that He be bruised to bring us our salvation. When the Holy Ghost came upon Mary, He created within her womb the cell that would multiply and become the body of our Lord. That cell was created. It was the Beginning of the Creation of God. That is Who Jesus is. And that Holy One was filled with Holy blood, even the blood of God. That tab...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 2:E-50
4. His Voice Was as the Sound of Many Waters. Now what do the waters represent? Hear it in Revelation 17:15, "... the waters which thou sawest,... are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." His voice was as the sound of multitudes speaking. What is it? It is the judgment. For these are the voices of the multitudes of witnesses, who by the Holy Spirit all through the ages have testified to Christ and preached His Gospel. It will be the voice of every man rising in judgment against the sinner who would n...