As one born into a Protestant or evangelical family [see: “About the Author”], I grew up singing the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy!” at church. With it I also grew up believing in a “God in three Persons, Blessed Trinity” – one “Holy” each for the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit [or the Holy Ghost, as some ancient benediction calls it, or “Him” as trinitarians refer to that Spirit].
The hymn claims to reflect Revelation 4:8, which records a vision of “four living creatures, each having six wings [angelic beings called “seraphim,” Isaiah 6:2], saying “Holy, Holy, Holy” of the “Lord God Almighty” or the “Lord of Hosts.”
Thus, the three “Holies” have come to be associated with and believed in and taught by mainstream “Christianity” as the “three-in-one” or “triune” God.
Since I became a member of the Worldwide Church of God, I no longer believe in the Trinity. I have discussed lengthily the matter of the trinity in my article “The Trinity Doctrine Reconsidered,” which would I encourage you to read and study, if you have not already done so. There just is no real proof in the Bible that God is a trinity!
Going back to Revelation 4:9, we will see clearly what the three “Holies” really refer to: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come!”
This is the real “Song Without End” [the title of a 1960s movie about the music of the well-loved composer Franz Liszt]. As the same verse says, the seraphim “do not rest day or night” saying their praise, which they may as well have sung without end.
What makes the Lord God Almighty three times “Holy” is that He was, and is, and is to come – the three dimensions of time: yesterday, today and tomorrow – past, present, and future.
Revelation 1:10; 22:12 shows Jesus Christ declaring Himself to be “the Alpha and the Omega” [the beginning and end of the Greek alphabet, as in the English A and Z]. Revelation 1:17-18 continues: “I am the first and the last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore.” This echoes Isaiah 41:4: “I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last I am He.”
Hebrews 12:9 says: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Malachi 3:6 speaks about God’s enduring mercies: “For I am the LORD, I do not change.” [See: “What Does God Mean – ‘I Do Not Change?’”]
Thus, the “three-ness” of God does not concern His supposed “three-in-one” nature or personhood as trinitarians believe and teach. Rather, it describes God’s eternal nature. As the Jewish-inspired hymn says in praise of the God of Abraham: “Who was, and is, and is to be, and still the same.” It is He who is “Holy, Holy, Holy!”
Pedro R. Melendez, Jr.
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