I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven-whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into Paradise--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows--and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
Perhaps the strangest thing about this account is that Paul puts it in the third person, as though it happened to someone else. I am not sure why that is since later, in verse 7, he makes it clear that this happened to him. Here, however, he sounds as though it occurred to somebody he had once known. He does not tell us very much; there is not much detail given about life beyond. (I have always wished I could interview him about this.)
But several things are clear from what he says. One is that it was obviously an experience where he went beyond this present life; he entered, he says, "the third heaven." (He also calls it "Paradise.") Now the "third heaven" was a reference to the Jewish belief about the structure of the universe. There were three heavens, they believed. The first was the atmosphere around the earth, the clouds, and so on. Beyond that they could see a second heaven where the stars, the sun and moon were. The third heaven was the invisible realm where God's throne was; therefore it was called Paradise. All through the Scriptures, whenever someone appeared out of or went into heaven, this invisible dimension of reality is in view. It does not mean that heaven is way out in space somewhere; it means that it is not visible to our present senses. It constitutes a kind of fourth dimension of life. It is there, into this realm, that the apostle was taken. If you trace back the dates, it was somewhere around the time when he came out of Tarsus back to Antioch (some ten years after his conversion). A revival broke out in Antioch, and Barnabas had gone to Tarsus and brought Paul back to help him in this work.
Secondly, it is clear Paul's body was rather unimportant in this event. If he was in the body he was not aware of it; and if he was out of the body, he did not miss it. This has always suggested to me that going to be with the Lord will not be as unique or as different an experience as we might think. Remember that in chapter 5 Paul calls it, "being at home with the Lord." After a season in a foreign land, it's such a great feeling to get home because home is the place where you relax, you feel at ease, you are not under strain or pressure, you can kick off your shoes, stretch out and feel comfortable. That is what being with the Lord was like, Paul says. It was like being home. He was not sure lust how the body fit in, but clearly it was a great experience of relaxed enjoyment for him. This is perhaps one reason why he gives this account in the third person, because it was almost like it happened to someone else. He was not aware of whether his body was involved or not.
Thirdly, Paul cannot tell us what he heard. Now he must have heard some marvelous things, things which contributed greatly to his understanding of life and reality. These must have deepened his grasp of what exists and what God is doing. But he could not describe these things in earthly words. When you read the Old Testament prophets, and some of the New Testament prophets, you notice that those who had visions of the Lord, visions of heaven, were never able to quite accurately describe what they saw. They had to put it in symbols-. Ezekiel's wheels within wheels and strange animals with four faces. Daniel's descriptions are somewhat similar; so are John's in Revelation. Not one could describe exactly what he saw because it is so far beyond what we presently know. This surely indicates that when we are with the Lord our knowledge will he vastly increased. We will know secrets we never dreamed existed, secrets that are so beyond us now they cannot be put into language.
We might expect that this, at least, is an experience Paul can boast about. We might expect him now to put down these false apostles and challenge them to come up with something greater than this. But remarkably, he does not do so. In fact, he goes on to say:
On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. Though if I wish to boast, I shall not be a fool, for I shall be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me (2 Corinthians 12:5, 6).
In those words Paul is admitting this way a very unusual experience; and if he did boast about it at least he would be telling the truth. But he does not boast because he does not want people to look at him in any way different from what they could see for themselves. In other words, he does not desire status beyond what a personal acquaintance would ascribe. "What you see is what you get" is the apostle's motto. He is not making any claims about anything unusual in his ministry.
That is very remarkable, especially in these days when we have a rash of books appearing, all telling us of some unusual, fantastic experience of people who supposedly died, went to heaven, and came back into the body. All describe what the writers saw, but not one of them would have waited fourteen years before rushing into print. These people immediately arrange lecture tours, television interviews, and welcome a celebrity status. You do not see anything like this with the apostle Paul. In fact, he says, "I haven't spoken of this for 14 years, and I do so reluctantly now. I don't want to boast about it. In fact, what I want to boast about I haven't even come to yet. This vision of Paradise is the introduction to what I have to say."
The Thorn in the Flesh
And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelation, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated (2 Corinthians 12:7).
"That," Paul says, "is my point of boasting--boasting about my weaknesses. Out of that experience of tremendous revelation and glory came the most annoying, irritating agony of my life"--what he calls, "a thorn in the flesh." Everyone wants to know what this "thorn" was and there are many guesses. Some commentators think it was a disease, perhaps malaria, and frequent spells of the fever laid him low. Others suggest that it was epilepsy, and claim this explains some of his strange utterances and what happened on the Damascus road. Some felt that perhaps Paul had bad eyesight, owing to the passage in Galatians where he commends his readers for their willingness to tear out their very eyes and give them to him. In that letter he also says, "You see with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand." (When I traveled with Dr. H. A. Ironside he was suffering from cataracts, and he used to write me with large letters. I often thought of those words of Paul as I read his letters.) I personally think it may well have been some eye problem that repeatedly bothered him and perhaps even made him rather repulsive at times. Some commentators feel he may have had a speech impediment because he mentions having difficulty uttering things as he wanted to. Some have even suggested that he was married once and had known a nagging wife. That would indeed be a thorn in the flesh! I do not think there is much evidence for that, although there is some evidence that Paul was once married. Whatever it was, we know one thing: it was in the flesh, i.e., it was probably something physical that was bothering him.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Caught Up into Paradise
http://www.raystedman.org/2corinthians/2corinthians.html#chapt21
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