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.
Church Ages, part 1: Revelation Chapter 1
60-1204M §71
...... A lot of you dear Oneness people baptize in the name of Jesus. You're wrong. There's hundreds of Jesuses in the world today, but there's only one Lord Jesus Christ. He was born a Christ. Lots of Jesuses. I've met many of them. But there's one Lord Jesus Christ. He's God. And Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is not names; they're titles that go to one name. Say, "Baptize in the name of Father, Son, Holy Ghost." Father's not a name, and Son's not a name, and Holy Ghost is not a name. It's a title, like "human." That's...
Godhead explained
61-0119A §45
Now, either God was his father or He wasn't his father. And the Holy Ghost was his father, or it wasn't his father, or the Bible tells a lie. So to make the revelation right, you see if Peter had the same revelation that I have of it. Now see, now, God the Father and the Holy Ghost is the self-same Spirit, or He had two fathers. He couldn't be conceived of God the Father, one spirit, and God the Holy Ghost, another spirit. Then He had two conceptions, see. So He couldn't be that way. Just couldn't actually be. Eith...
Questions and Answers, part 2
54-0103E §107
If you're without Jesus Christ, without the Holy Ghost, may God don't let you have any rest till you receive the Holy Ghost. Don't be deceived. Just don't take one of these formal dry-eyed confessions and say that you've got the Holy Ghost. You do not get the Holy Ghost when you believe. You don't believe to get the Holy Ghost. It's a gift of God. Paul said, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" So believe it. And may God grant it to you. Now, Father, to those who held up their hands, I pray that Y...
Raising Jairus' daughter
56-0731 §64
...s, you Methodists, Baptists, Lutheran, Presbyterians, over in these Full Gospel realms, I come from where you are. I'm still there. We're all one. We're not divided. Not a bit. I'm just as much Lutheran as I am Pentecostal. I'm just as much Baptist as I was the day I was ordained in the Baptist church. I've just found something better, something more. It's just more of what you got. It's the baptism of the Holy Ghost. You received Christ, sure, when you believed, but the Bible said, "Have you received the Holy Ghos...
Abraham's covenant confirmed
61-0318 §44
And if you've really---not been excited, not worked up in emotion, not got some church creed---but really received the Holy Ghost, and you're really part of Christ, and still a little skeptic in your mind, God will not shove you off from that, because He can't. You're a part of Christ. He'll bring you to the truth. Now if you have never ... you just ... you might have spoke in tongues, danced in the Spirit, and done all these things there. That don't mean you got the Holy Ghost. Oh, my, my! That's a million miles f...