Did the Apostle John Believe in the Trinity?

The secretary told me the caller wished to speak with a pastor. He had told her he had some questions about the Bible. I took the call hoping I could be helpful. Right away I could tell that the man was argumentative. His purpose in calling was to try to draw me into a dispute about the doctrine of the Trinity.

Belief in the tri-unity of God is not something that would be invented by humans. It is beyond reason. It is the teaching, based on many biblical texts, that God is one, eternally revealed in three co-equal persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This teaching, as mysterious as it is, is an essential Christian doctrine.

When it became clear that nothing I could say would influence my caller’s thinking, I ended the conversation kindly, but firmly. 1 Timothy 6:3-4 warns us about people who do not “agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching…. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels….”

If he had been willing to have a calm discussion of some of the great New Testament passages on the deity of Christ, we might have read Colossians 1:15-20, and corresponding verses in Philippians 2, Hebrews 1, Revelation 1, and John 1. I might have taken him to the famous benediction at the end of 2 Corinthians, or the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 3:14-19, or the baptismal formula in Matthew 28:19.

There are also intimations of the Trinity in 1 John. But not where you might think.

For more than three centuries readers of the venerable Authorized Version (dedicated to King James of England in 1611) read 1 John 5:7 as irrefutable proof of the Trinity. “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”

Some readers are surprised to discover that these words are omitted from virtually all contemporary translations of 1 John. This is not because of anti-Trinitarian bias or theological liberalism. It is because the words are not found in any Greek manuscript of 1 John dating before the fourteenth century. None of the early church fathers quote these words (which they certainly would have done in their debates with heretics, if they had had them).

The translators of the King James Bible did not have available to them the trove of Greek manuscripts that have been discovered since they did their work. Some of these New Testament manuscripts date back to the second and third centuries. They do not contain the reading of 1 John 5:7 cited above.

It is important to note, as many Bible scholars remind us, that no Christian doctrine rises or falls with any minor textual variation, such as the one cited above. The Trinity is not called into question because some zealous scribe inserted the words into an early Latin version that was later translated into Greek which formed the basis for the early English translations of 1 John 5:7.

Well then, did John believe in the Trinity? Here are two strong intimations of the Holy Trinity from 1 John. They point to the divine nature of the Spirit of God, as well as the Son of God, along with our Father, God.

John wrote in 1 John 2:27, “The Anointing is real… remain in him.” Who or what is the “Anointing?” He is the Holy Spirit who “teaches you about all things.” This is important in light of what John had written a few lines before. “You also will remain in the Son and in the Father” (2:24). Just as Christians are to remain in close fellowship with God the Father and God the Son, they are to remain in close fellowship with God the Holy Spirit. Compare 1 John 4:13, “We know that we live in him and he in us: he has given us of his Spirit.”

A second evidence that Trinitarian theology permeated the writings of the apostle John is found in 1 John 5:6, “The Spirit is the truth.” Then John says in 5:20, “The son of God has come…so that we may know him who is true,” an obvious reference to God the Father. Then he refers to the Son as the one who is true: “We are in him who is true — even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”

So what? Are we playing word games just to win theological debates? Why is this important? Consider this: “The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). This is the good news of the gospel. Furthermore, “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts” (Galatians 4:6). This is the good news of the comforting, guiding, assuring ministry of the Spirit of God in the hearts of those who believe. God sent his Son. God sent his Spirit. This is the good news of the Trinity.

Yes, John believed in the Holy Trinity and so do I.

    –  Pastor Randy Faulkner

Contact