“The Third Heaven”
In
his second letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul refers to the third
heaven and states: “I know a man in union with Christ Jesus who, fourteen years ago –
whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know; God knows
- was caught away as such to the third heaven.” (2 Corinthians 12:2) Was Paul actually “taken” into the very heavens, as some Christians believe? Or might there be some other explanation as
to what he experienced?
The
Scriptures use the word “heaven” or “heavens,” in at least six different
ways. Therefore, it is most important to
examine each usage first, as this will shed light upon the topic of our
discussion.
The physical heaven(s)
Genesis
1:1 speaks of the physical heavens when it states: “In the
beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Another example of the physical heavens
is found in Psalm 19:1, which reads: “The heavens are declaring the glory of
God. And the work of his hands the
expanse is telling.”
The
apostle Paul spoke of God’s creative work in Romans 1:19, 20, and said: “because what may be known about God is
manifest among them, for God made it manifest to them. For his invisible qualities are clearly seen
from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things
made, even his eternal power and diety, so that they are inexcusable.”
Heaven is also used to describe space in the
proximity of our earth. For example, we have Jesus’ reference to the “birds of heaven” in Matthew 6:26.
Jesus is obviously speaking of the sky. Another example of this is found
at 2 Kings 2:11, where “Elijah went
ascending in the windstorm to the heavens.” Elisha would have seen Elijah go up into the
sky, and disappear from sight. That it
was only the sky he went into is made clear in John 3:13 where Jesus said: “Moreover, no man has ascended into heaven
but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man.”
Another use of the word heavens is the
invisible dimension, or ‘dwelling place,’ of God. Psalm 33:13, 14 states:
“From the heavens Jehovah has looked…from the established place where he
dwells.” Psalm 2:4, states: “The very one sitting in the heavens will
laugh; Jehovah himself will hold them in derision.” And in
Psalm 20:6, King
David said: “Now I do know that Jehovah certainly saves his anointed one. He
answers him from his holy heavens.”
A fourth usage of the word heaven is in
reference to a highly elevated, spiritual position. An example of such usage is found in
Ephesians 2:6 which states: “And he
raised us up together, and seated us together in the heavenly places
(Greek: literally, “heavenlies,”) in
union with Christ Jesus.” Another
example is found in Revelation 4:1, where John sees an open door in heaven, and
hears a voice saying to him: “Come on up
here, and I will show you the things that must take place.” All
enlightenment comes out of heaven, from God.
Persons who receive such
enlightenment are, therefore, “raised up” or elevated, in a spiritual sense.
Heaven is also used as a synonym for God.
In the parable of the prodigal son, the repentant man said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and
against you.” (Luke 15:18) Another
example is Jesus’ frequent reference to the kingdom, as the “
The last usage of heavens is in reference to
government. We have an example of
this in Haggai 2:6, 7 which states: “For this is what Jehovah of armies has
said, ‘Yet once more – it is a little while - and I am rocking the heavens and
the earth and the sea and the dry ground.’ (then He explains) And I will
rock all the nations, and the desirable things will come in…” The prophet then shows what that means. He
continues: (in verses 21, 22) “…..I am
rocking the heavens and the earth. And I shall certainly overthrow the throne
of kingdoms and annihilate the strength of the kingdoms of the nations…”
What we see here is that heavens
mean ‘kingdoms of the nations.’ In Hebrews 12:26, 27 this prophecy is referred
to, and further explained. The writer
states: “At that time his voice shook the
earth (Mt. Sinai), but now he has promised, saying: ‘Yet once more I will set
in commotion not only the earth but also
the heaven.” Verse 27 continues:
“Now the expression, ‘Yet once more’ signifies the removal of the things being
shaken as things that have been made, in order that the things not being shaken
may remain.” And what is that? He answers in verse 28: “Wherefore, seeing that we have a kingdom
that cannot be shaken…” Please note that
what is shaken and removed is “earth”
and “heaven.”
The apostle Peter makes this very
same point in 2 Peter 3:5-7 writing, “…there
were heavens from of old, and an earth, standing compactly out of water, and in
the midst of water, by the word of God;
and by those means, the world
of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water.” (The world of that time, which was deluged by
water and “destroyed,” was the governmental administra-tion and earth’s
inhabitants. Only Noah and his family survived).
Peter
continues: “But by the same word the heavens and the
earth that are now are stored up for fire, and are being reserved to the day of
judgment of the ungodly men.” The
point Peter is making is that just as God destroyed a ‘world,’ a system, consisting of people and
their rulers, (earth and heaven) by sending the flood, even so in our day, He
has reserved this world to “the judgment
and destruction of ungodly men.” In
other words, just as the “heavens”
and “earth” came to an end in the
flood, even so the “heavens” and “earth” (today) will also come to an
end, albeit in a different way.
When
Isaiah prophesied, saying: “For there are new heavens and a new earth
and the former things will not be called to mind, neither will they come up
into the heart” (65:17), he was foretelling the very thing Peter is talking
about. And to further show that ‘heavens and earth’ are referred to as a
system of “rulers” and “subjects,” Isaiah also said this: (1:2)
“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth,
for Jehovah himself has spoken: “Sons I have brought up and raised, but they
themselves have revolted against me.”
Finally,
when the Scriptures speak of, ‘world,’ as
used in 2 Peter 3:5-7, that word is translated from the Greek word “kosmos.”
Strong’s Concordance gives
the meaning as: “an orderly arrange-ment,”
(by implication, the world in a wide or narrow sense.) In other words, “world” and its equivalent “kosmos,”
referred to by Peter, actually consist of a “heavens” (governmental administration), and an “earth,” (those under its rule). Before the flood, as Peter shows, that is
what existed, and subsequently perished in the flood. It really meant the “destruction of ungodly men.”
In this way, that world came to an end.
After the flood, a new kosmos or “world,”
began.
Now
then, before proceeding to identify the ‘third
heaven’ we need to consider the aspect of ‘ages’ as used in Scripture.
In Matthew
Spirit, it will not be forgiven him
in this system (Greek: ‘age’), nor
in
the one to come. Clearly, Jesus is
speaking of two ages, i.e., “this age,” and
“the one to come.” There are several scriptural examples of
this.
In
Matthew
Surely,
that period before the flood was ‘an age’
that came to an end. The present ‘world,’
or system of things, also consists of heavens and an earth (same representations), that Peter says “are stored up for fire and are being
reserved to the day of judgment, and of destruction, of ungodly men.” This is the ‘present age’. Now then,
that leaves the ‘age to come’ or ‘the coming age.’ Like the two ages before it, it also will
consist of a ‘heavens’ and ‘an earth,’ i.e., an administration,
consisting of Christ Jesus, the King, and His Bride, to whom He gives authority to rule over the
nations. Those nations (humankind in
general), will form the new earth under the rule of Christ Jesus, with His “bride.”
(See: Rev. 2:26, 27 and Luke
22:28-30.) This kingdom, “will not be
shaken,” as shown in Hebrews 12. It
will prevail, and accomplish God’s purpose for this earth.
In
view of the foregoing, it seems rather obvious that the “third heaven” actually consists of Christ Jesus and His
bride. Moreover, they are the
administration for the ‘new earth.’ Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that
this is what Paul had a glimpse of, in Eph. 1:9, & 10 where Paul refers to
the “sacred secret” and then explains
that there will be an administration “to
gather all things together again in Christ.” That administration is the
Lewis D. Hrytzak
“This account
which the apostle gives us of his vision should check our curious desires after
forbidden knowledge, and teach us to not try to improve on the revelation God
has given us in His word. Paul himself, who had been in the third heaven, did
not publish to the world what he had heard there, but adhered to the doctrine
of Christ: on this foundation the church is built, and on this we must build
our faith and hope.”
Matthew Henry
Commentary