1 John 5:7: “The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one.”
John 1:1: “And the Word was God.”
John 6:63: “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
(1) Does the Word contain the Holy Ghost? Are they the same in effect, or is there now a separate influence from him guiding and directing? (2) Is not our character entirely the result of the knowledge we have gained through the avenue of our senses? (3) Does God now ever act upon the heart otherwise than through the laws of the human mind? – J.M.D.
(1) The text first quoted above is spurious, and is so considered, we believe, by all scholars. Alford says: “The words–‘the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth’–are omitted by all Greek MSS. (till the sixteenth century), all the Greek fathers, all the ancient versions, and most of the Latin fathers.” And “there is not the shadow of a reason for supposing them genuine. Even the supposed citation in early Latin fathers have now, on closer examination, disappeared.” The Word of God, however, contains the Spirit of God, tho the Spirit of God is by no means confined to that Word. “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” The Spirit works through the Word, and calls that Word to remembrance.
Signs of the Times, May 13, 1897
(2) Not entirely; heredity, or what we have inherited from our ancestors, has to do with it.
(3) According to his character of love, we do not see how he can act otherwise. Man must himself yield his mind and will to God. If we will do this, God will give him a new mind.
