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Book 4 Chapter 8.
A “semi-Trinitarian” Christian sent me an article to try to support his belief that God the Son came down from heaven and was manifested or incarnated in the flesh.
In other words, “semi-Trinitarian” Christians believe PART of the doctrine of the Trinity, but not ALL of the doctrine of the Trinity.
To say this another way, “semi-Trinitarian” Christians believe that the Son of God had a BEGINNING and that the Son was BEGOTTEN by God in the eternity past.
And “semi-Trinitarian” Christians also do NOT believe that God the Son is equal in every way with the Father and His Holy Spirit.
Now, this particular “semi-Trinitarian” brother in our Lord Jesus Christ happens to be a King James ONLY Christian.
And in our discussion concerning who Jesus truly is in the LIGHT of the WHOLE word of Almighty God, I sent him the following video by James White, who is still presently a hard-core Trinitarian Christian.
And in this video there is a huge amount of documented evidence that 1 John 5:7 is NOT found in any of the Greek manuscripts BEFORE the 14th century.
Now, to be fair and openly honest, we need to closely examine the KJV ONLY side of the argument.
They argue that 1 John 5:7 had to be in some EARLY manuscripts because some of the early church writers make REFERENCE to it in their writings.
In other words, if 1 John 5:7 was NOT in some of the early manuscripts, then HOW did these early church writers know that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are ONE?
I will quote part of this King James ONLY article at a time so that I can explain each section one by one.
The emphasis in each quote is mine. And the comment within each quote that are in parenthesis and in a different font style, Times Romans, are mine as well.
“Question: Is it true that 1 John 5:7 is not in any Greek manuscript before the 1600s? If that is true, why is it in the King James Bible?
Answer: 1 John 5:7 belongs in the King James Bible and was preserved by faithful Christians. But the passage was removed from many Greek manuscripts, because of the problems it seemed to cause.”
Now, let us “ASSUME” that this King James ONLY answer is correct and Christians during the third century REMOVE 1 John 5:7 to PROTECT the TRUTH.
For you see, this King James only answer for WHY 1 John 5:7 is NOT found in ANY early Greek manuscripts before the 1,600’s is that it was CAUSING PROBLEMS.
I will explain why this KJV answer PROVES that 1 John 5:7 does NOT teach or support the doctrine of the Trinity in a moment.
But first, I want you to see that the KJV only Christians AGREE that 1 John 5:7 is NOT found in any EXISTING Greek manuscripts before the 17th century.
“It is true that there is a small number of Scriptures that are not the same between the King James Bible and the so-called "Majority" Greek text. There are a number of reasons for this:
The so-called "Majority" text was not really based on the majority of texts, but rather a relatively small number of manuscripts.
The last person to try to find the differences between the majority of Greek manuscripts, Dr. Von Soden, did not collate more than 400 of the more than 5,000 Greek texts.
In other words, what is commonly called the "Majority" Greek text is not a collation of the majority of manuscripts at all.”
And four hundred manuscripts is more than the 11 or less manuscripts used by the translators of the KJV.
Again, James Whites, in the video that I linked at the beginning of this chapter, shows that at most there were only 8 Greek manuscripts used to translate the KJV.
And if no one has compared ALL 5000 plus existing manuscripts, then how could any King James only Christian know whether or not the 4,600 manuscripts agree with the 400 manuscripts that were compared with each other? So to me, this is not a valid reason.
The "Majority" Greek text is also the main Greek text used by the Eastern Orthodox religion. They had a vested interest in changing (or deleting) some texts. More on this in a moment.
1 John itself is not in a large number of extant Greek manuscripts.”
Please note that the KJV only Christians AGREE and openly admit that 1 John 5:7 is NOT in a LARGE number of existing Greek manuscripts.
“So why then is 1 John 5:7 in the King James Bible, but not in many of the existing Greek manuscripts? To understand the answer, we must look at the history of what happened shortly after the Bible was written.
The Greek and Roman Institutions
During the early growth of the Christian church, ministers (whether saved or not) wrote down doctrines that they said were Christian and Biblical.
Starting after the death of the apostles (about 100 AD) many people taught the lie that Jesus was not God the Son and Son of God, or that Jesus became God at His baptism, or the false doctrine that the Holy Spirit was not God or was not eternal.”
Please notice that the writer of this KJV only article that I am quoting is obviously a Trinitarian Christian.
Now, he openly admits the TRUTH that there were DIVISIONS among Christians that arose after the last Apostle died at the end of the FIRST century.
He says that MINISTERS, some saved and some NOT saved wrote church doctrines. And both sides claimed that THEIR doctrine was Biblical.
But the real question that you should be asking yourself is, “WHICH doctrine did the TRUE Christians REJECT and were martyred for REJECTING?”
Answer that question correctly, and then you will know WHY they REMOVED 1 John 5:7.
In other words, if it is true that the true Christians REMOVED 1 John 5:7 to PROTECT the TRUTH, then WHY did the persecutors against the true Christians NOT PRESERVE THEIR copies of the Greek manuscripts, if they “used” the Greek manuscripts?
“The growing religion that became known as Roman Catholic, after many debates eventually agreed on the doctrine of the Trinity. So they had no reason to remove 1 John 5:7 from their Bibles, since it supported what they taught.”
Can you not see the FLAWS in this KJV answer for why 1 John 5:7 is not found in ANY of the early GREEK manuscripts before the 17th century?
They argue that the TRUE Christians REMOVED it from THEIR Greek manuscripts to PROTECT the TRUTH among their own fellowship of true Christians.
But the Roman Catholic Church KEPT 1 John 5:7, if it truly existed as actual TEXT in THEIR Bibles, which were written in LATIN. For you see, 1 John 5:7 is NOT found in ANY of the early GREEK manuscripts.
Here is a quote from Wikipedia that shows earlier translations of the Bible BEFORE Jerome began a REVISION of those earlier Latin translations.
In other words, the Christians in different areas used manuscripts written in Greek while Christians in other areas, who became the Roman Catholic Christians, used manuscripts written in LATIN.
Again, the following quote is from Wikipedia. The emphasis is mine.
“Early Latin versions are divided into Vetus Latina and Vulgate. Vetus Latina manuscripts, also called Old Latin or Itala, are so called not because they are written in Old Latin (i.e. Latin prior to 75 BC), but because they are the oldest versions of the New Testament in Latin.
Unlike the Vulgate, the Vetus Latina tradition reflects numerous distinct, similar, and not entirely independent translations of various New Testament texts, extending back to the time of the original Greek autographs.[2]
In 382 CE, Jerome began a revision of the existing Vetus Latina Gospels into contemporary Latin, corrected against manuscripts in the original Greek.[3] Acts, Pauline epistles, Catholic epistles and the Apocalypse are Vetus Latina considered as being made by Pelagian groups or by Rufinus the Syrian.[4] Those texts and others are known as the Vulgate,[5] a compound text that is not entirely Jerome's work.”
In other words, Jerome BEGAN translating the already EXISTING LATIN manuscripts, but NOT ALL of what is written in the Latin VULGATE is the work of Jerome.
And what the “Catholic” Christians in the WEST used as THEIR Bible was the LATIN manuscripts.
And thus, some of the early church writers MAY have made references to a comment in their Bibles, which later was added as 1 John 5:7 in the Latin Vulgate translation from the existing Latin manuscripts.
Or they MAY have made references to 1 John 5:8, which they “INTERPRETED” as supporting THEIR church doctrine of a Trinity Godhead.
So they added COMMENTS above 1 John 5:8 in their Latin manuscripts. And it was those added COMMENTS above 1 John 5:8 that SOME of the early church writer's reference.
“But the Greek Eastern Orthodox religion was combating a heresy called "Sabellianism," and would have found it easier to combat the heresy by simply removing the troubling passage from their Bibles.”
Again, this is just SPECULATION as a possibility for why 1 John 5:7 is NOT found in ANY GREEK manuscript before the 17th century.
And the trail of evidence quoted below could very well be referencing the BELIEF of the Roman Catholic Church that was being formed at that time beginning in the early part of the third century.
Again, these early church writers could have been references to the comments written in THEIR LATIN Bible manuscripts. And that is WHY 1 John 5:7 is NOT found in ANY GREEK manuscripts before the 17th century.
“A Trail of Evidence
But during this same time, we find mention of 1 John 5:7, from about 200 AD through the 1500s. Here is a useful timeline of references to this verse:
200 AD. Tertullian wrote,
“which three are one” based on the verse in his Against Praxeas, chapter 25.
250 AD. Cyprian of Carthage wrote,
“And again, of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost it is written: "And the three are One" in his On The Lapsed, On the Novatians, (see note for Old Latin)
350 AD. Priscillian referred to it [Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Academia Litterarum Vindobonensis, vol. xviii, p. 6.]”
Please notice that it is in LATIN that Pricilian refers to SOMETHING in the Latin Bible used by the Roman Catholic Christians who persecuted and killed the Christians who REJECTED THEIR doctrine of the Trinity.
Now, it really does not matter what the Roman Catholic Church fathers wrote concerning THEIR OWN man-made doctrine of the Trinity.
So, I will not quote the rest of the KJV only article. You can read the whole article for yourself at the Chick Publications website.
Jack Chick is famous for his publication of Bible Tracts and he is also one of the first advocates for the KJV ONLY Bible.
The first link in the quote below is mine. I thought you might like to know who these Christians are and why they were SEVERELY persecuted and killed by the Roman Catholic Church CLERGY, the leaders of Catholicism.
“The Vaudois
Now the "Waldensian," or "Vaudois" Bibles stretch from about 157 AD to the 1400s AD.
The fact is, according to John Calvin's successor Theodore Beza, that the Vaudois received the Scriptures from missionaries of Antioch of Syria in the 120s AD and finished translating it into their Latin language by 157 AD.
This Bible was passed down from generation to generation, until the Reformation of the 1500s, when the Protestants translated the Vaudois Bible into French, Italian, etc.
This Bible carries heavy weight when finding out what God really said. John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards believed, as most of the Reformers, that the Vaudois were the descendants of the true Christians, and that they preserved the Christian faith for the Bible-believing Christians today.”
Or more correctly, they preserved PART of the TRUE Christian faith. In other words, during the Protestant Reformation they helped to RESTORE a good portion of the TRUTH.
But the truth of the matter is that SOME of the Protestants still believed in the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, which the Apostles of Jesus did NOT teach.
“Who Has the Most to Gain? Who Has the Most to Lose?
The evidence of history shows us that the Roman Catholic religion was relentless in its effort to destroy the Vaudois and their Bible.
It took them until the 1650s to finish their hateful attacks. But the Vaudois were successful in preserving God's words to the days of the Reformation.
Now we have to ask ourselves a question: Who had the most to gain by adding to or taking away from the Bible?
Did the Vaudois, who were being killed for having their Bibles, have anything to gain by adding to or taking from the words of God? Compromise is what the Roman religion wanted!
Had the Vaudois just followed the popes, their lives would have been much easier. But they counted the cost. This was not politics; it was their life and soul.
They, above all people would not want to change a single letter of the words they received from Antioch of Syria. And they paid for this with their lives.”
Now, if you remember, this very same KJV article says that they copied the manuscripts from Antioch into their own LATIN language.
And that means that THEIR manuscripts were ALSO LATIN like the Roman Catholic Christians.
So, if they removed 1 John 5:7 from THEIR Bibles, then it would have been removed from THEIR Latin manuscripts.
But, that still does not explain WHY 1 John 5:7 is NOT found in ANY GREEK manuscripts before the 17th century.
Also, even though the Vaudois Christians rejected MANY Roman Catholic Church doctrines, this “particular” KJV only article does not “specify” what Roman Catholic doctrines that the Vaudois Christians rejected that caused such SEVERE persecution by the Roman Catholic Church LEADERSHIP.
The FACT is that most of the history of what the Vaudois Christians believed back then came from the writings within the Roman Catholic Church.
And if the Roman Catholic Church was to admit that the reason that their leaders persecuted and killed Christians who left the Roman Catholic Church was that they rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, then that would prove that not ALL Christians believed the doctrine of the Trinity.
“What about the "scholars" at Alexandria, Egypt? We already know about them. They could not even make their few 45 manuscripts agree. How could we believe they preserved God's words?”
Some Christians may not be aware of the fact that Mark, the writer of the gospel of Mark, FOUNDED the church in Alexandria in 49 AD.
So, do you truly think that Mark, the writer of the Gospel of Mark and the one who established the church in Alexandria, Egypt, was a FALSE teacher?
Do you truly believe that the Coptic manuscripts that the Coptic Christians copied directly from the GREEK manuscripts are so-called CORRUPTED manuscripts?
To me, it is the “LATIN” manuscripts that have been CORRUPTED. So, to me, this whole KJV ONLY argument is just an OPINION that “perhaps” the true Christians REMOVED 1 John 5:17.
None of their so-called evidence states that it was the GREEK manuscripts that the early church “Catholic” writers quoted from.
“The Reformation itself owes a lot to these Christians in the French Alps. They not only preserved the Scriptures, but they show to what lengths God would go to keep his promise (Psalm 12:6-7).
And that's only part of the story about the preservation of God's words.”
So then, my conclusion is that 1 John 5:7 was NOT REMOVED to protect or to preserve the TRUTH and then RESTORED in the 15 to 17th centuries.
But rather, 1 John 5:7 was ADDED to the KJV from the Latin manuscripts that were corrupted by the Roman Catholic Church leaders from the third century to this very day.
Thanks for reading, and may God bless you richly as you continue to seek the TRUTH of the WHOLE word of Almighty God.
And to me, the truth concerning who Jesus TRULY is, according to the Bible ITSELF, is the Biblical Unitarian view of Jesus.
Once Christians, Jews, Muslims, and even atheists understand the REASON that Yahweh CREATED the Son of MAN, Jesus, was to have DOMINION over the work of Yahweh’s hands.
And after you understand that the REASON that Yahweh did that is to STILL His ENEMIES, Satan and the fallen angels.
Then you can understand that God made His human Son to become “a” Lord, “a” King, and “a” God, under and subject to his God and Father in order to JUDGE Satan and the fallen angels.
For a deeper understanding of this WAR that Lucifer and one third of the angels waged against the throne of Almighty God, please read the studies under the subject category called Q-0 Why Are We Here? Is God at WAR?
More studies are coming in this SHORTER Biblical Unitarian view of who Jesus is according to the WHOLE word of God.
If you have a PARTICULAR verse of Scripture that you would like to know the sound Biblical Unitarian meaning, then please email me at MarkatAMatterOfTruth@Gmail.com and let me know.
For further and more in-depth studies on this subject of Jesus being created to STILL the enemies of Yahweh, please read the studies called D-25. A NEW LOOK at JOHN 1:1, In the BEGINNING!
And also read the study called D-28. The PRE-ADAMIC LUCIFERIAN FLOOD!
At the top of my homepage, there are subjects or categories which contain compiled lists of ALL Studies!
So, if a link within a study is broken, then click on ALL Studies to find the suggested study.
Or you can scroll down to the MORE dropdown menu list to find those studies as well.
Thanks again for reading, and may God bless you richly as you continue to seek the TRUTH of the WHOLE word of Almighty God.
And to me, the truth concerning who Jesus TRULY is, according to the Bible ITSELF, is the Biblical Unitarian view of Jesus.
And again, for ALL of the studies on the Biblical Unitarian view of Jesus, please click on the subject heading D-0. The BIBLICAL UNITARIAN VIEW of Jesus!
And for the SUBJECT on the true foundation of the church, please click on the subject heading C-0. The TRUE FOUNDATION of the Church!
This way you can just send ONE link to those who you want to share the TRUE sound Biblical FOUNDATIONAL teachings of the church that Jesus and his Apostles taught in the first century church.
Your brother in our Lord Jesus Christ,
Brother Mark.
My heartfelt prayer is that all Christians RETURN to the TRUE FOUNDATION of the church that is taught by the very Apostles of Jesus in the first century.
So let us all come into the UNITY of the faith and return to what Jesus and his Apostles taught us in SIMPLICITY in the New Testament.
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