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.
The Resurrection
53-1205 §101
How many in here is without the baptism of the Holy Ghost, say, "Brother Branham, you pray for me. I want the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I belong to church. That's true enough. And I've accepted Jesus as my Saviour, but I know I haven't got the Holy Ghost"? Now, you say, "Well, I believe I got the Holy Ghost." That isn't it. You know when you got the Holy Ghost. You don't get the Holy Ghost with some psychic work-up. The Holy Ghost is a gift of God.
Wisdom versus Faith
62-0401 §92
The name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that's three titles. There's only one name. You cannot be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, until you're baptized in the name of Jesus Christ; 'cause that is the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The whole Bible is wrote out like that. Every person in the Bible was ever baptized, was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Nobody in the Scripture ever baptized in the titles of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And everyone was baptized in the name...
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...
The Lamb's book of life
56-0603 §81
Don't know how you feel. I'll sing the verse: you sing the chorus with me. The first one to die for this Holy Ghost plan, Was John the Baptist, he died like a man; Then came the Lord Jesus, they crucified Him, He preached that the Spirit would save men from sin. Keeps dripping with blood, yes, it's dripping with blood, This Holy Ghost Gospel (I love it!) it's dripping with blood, The blood of disci... (Let the world say what they want to.) who died for the truth, This Holy Ghost Gospel keeps dripping with blood. Th...
Questions and Answers
59-0628E §92
Now, that cannot... You cannot make a target hit here and a target hit there. "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," say, "Let them go, they're all right!" And "Jesus name," let that go and say, "They're all right." There's got to be something that's got to hit right. God's not a author of confusion. And you run that through the Bible anywhere you want to, and you'll find out that it's a false baptism. Then go back to history, and down in the sixth century when great Agtobus, I believe it was, that baptized or one of the.....