In 2 Corinthians 12 the Apostle Paul says the following:
12 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 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. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:1-10 NIV
The majority of Bible scholars teach that Paul was speaking about himself when he speaks about a man in 2 Corinthians 12:2-6 who visited Heaven. However, I don’t believe that it was the apostle Paul that went to Heaven for the following reasons:
I have read the epistles many times and the apostle Paul was a plain speaker. He did not speak in riddles in the epistles. Even his metaphors were straightforward and easy to understand. That is something that I appreciate about the apostle Paul. If he had been the man who went to heaven, he would have plainly said: ‘I went to heaven fourteen years ago’ . Bible scholars who have taught that Paul was referring to himself in these verses have not spent sufficient time analysing his writing style and understanding who he was as a person.
It must be remembered that there were also other Christians and that Paul knew many of these other Christians. On the day of Pentecost alone 500 people came to know the Lord. God is not a respecter of persons and, so, Paul would not have been the only Christian at that time who God did something special with. It is not unusual that he would have taken another Christian to see Heaven.
The revelations that Paul refers to in verse 7 have nothing to do with the trip to Heaven mentioned in verses 2-6 but are Paul’s own revelations given to him by Jesus which form the gospel which he has been teaching to the gentiles:
11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
Galatians 1:11-12 NIV
In 2 Corinthians 12:4 Pauls says that the man heard ‘inexpressible things.’ Therefore the revelations that Paul speaks of cannot be the ‘inexpressible things’ that Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians 12:4 because Paul expressed his revelations to the church as the gospel.
The gospel was communicated to Paul while He was reading the Old Testament. While he was reading the Holy Spirit opened up the eyes of his understanding to see what the meaning of the old Testament scriptures actually was. It was not necessary for Paul to be taken to Heaven to get his revelations. His revelations were all grounded in Old Testament scriptures and involved reinterpreting these scriptures to reveal Jesus in them.
