What is 2 Corinthians 12:2 about?
A Mormon on YouTube said that Paul is referring to the 'Celestial Kingdom'. Is this true, or has this just been brought out of context? Passage: "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know - God knows."
2 Corinthians 12:2
ESV - 2 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.
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Asked December 31 2013
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George Adams
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For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Gary Wainwright
'I know a man in Christ' is Paul speaking of himself but he speaks with reserve to avoid boasting about himself rather than the Lord who granted him such a privilege. 'Fourteen years ago' is about AD 42 in the period of Paul's Christian life not described in Acts. 'Third heaven' is the highest heaven, the presence of God, in contrast to the sky and starry heavens visible from Earth.
Neikka Harlingten
For me, the third heaven is that place I go to where I’m in perfect union with God, or at least that’s how it feels. Those times when I seriously don’t know if I’m in this body or not. If I’m walking down the street, I wonder if people can see me or not. I look at my arm and I can see the arm but at the same time I can’t tell where the arm ends and the outside of the arm/the universe, ends. It’s weird, I can see the arm and at the same time I can’t even though I can still almost know of it’s presence.
It’s not like the regular heaven that we live in here on earth, it’s like it’s higher than that some how, even though we’re here on this earth still, I think, I honestly can’t always know when I’m in that place.
And thinking about it now, I haven’t been there for a while, so this verse came at the perfect time, because it really is a long time since I’ve been in that place. Even since before this global situation occurred, when I began to take an interest in the things of this world, it’s been a while since I’ve been to what I thought of as a higher heaven, so thank you for this verse. I love how God works in all sorts of ways. I’ve been guided in the last couple of days to take my interest away from the things of this world and come back to Gods kingdom. Beautiful.
Danny Hickman
Paul was quite a character!
That is, he became a great servant of the Lord Jesus. He became a minister of the gospel, "According to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of His power. To me though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 3:7-10)
This "least of all the saints" was given a vision of Paradise after he'd suffered greatly in his body (2 Corinthians 12). So when he tells of the vision he says, he couldn't make out whether he was in his body or transferred there only in the spirit; he couldn't tell. I think he's contrasting his suffering experiences with his vision of the heavenly realm. There was no mistaking what he had gone through here in the earthly realm; he'd felt the sting of what sin does to us here. Living for Jesus can be very painful; that was Paul's point. But here it is: he'd rather boast about suffering for Christ than he would for being "exalted above measure" by God. His sufferings taught him more about the sufficiency and value of God's grace toward him than the visions had revealed. He knew the Lord better through his suffering...
Like I said, Paul was quite a character!!