We continue with our consideration of Paul's vindication of his ministry with respect

to his opponents in the Corinthian church. He has already shown that this ministry was

more than equal to that of his critics both in faithfulness and personal suffering and

In chapter 12: he passes on to visions and revelations of the Lord. This suggests that

his enemies were also claiming to have such visions and revelations, but here again his

experience far outweighed theirs. He is so averse to personal boasting and the exaltation

of self that he begins to speak of himself impersonally:

The A.V. "I knew a man" is incorrect here and also in verse 3. This gives the

impression that the man referred to was no longer known to Paul!

We have already noted that the book of the Acts records a number of appearances of

the Lord Jesus to the Apostle, but the one he is dealing with here cannot be equated with

any of these, unless we add our own thoughts and ideas to Luke's narrative, and this we

refuse to do. Nor must we make the mistake of identifying these `fourteen years' with

the fourteen years of Gal. 2: 1. If we go back from the probable date of the epistle we

arrive at the time when Paul was sent to Tarsus and then fetched by Barnabas from

Tarsus to Antioch (Acts 9: 30; 11: 25).  About this time he was caught away to the

third heaven. The Greek verb is found in Acts 8: 39 where it is stated that "the Spirit

of the Lord caught away Philip" who was found later on at Azotus. It is also used in

I Thess. 4: 17 which describes the Lord's parousia, His arrival on the earth, to set up the

earthly Kingdom. Those believers who are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet

the Lord in the air and then return with Him in His triumphal procession to the earth in

power and great glory attended by the angels of heaven.

The expressions `the third heaven' occurs only here in the N.T., but one must not

forget the phrase `all heavens' in Eph. 4: 10 in connection with the Lord's ascension.

While we sometimes read of heaven in the singular in the Bible, describing the whole

heavenly sphere, yet this is obviously subdivided into sections, otherwise Eph. 4: 10

and II Cor. 12: 2 are meaningless. We cannot tell how many sections there are, for this

is not revealed*, but there must be at least three or more. Peter, in his second epistles

refers to (1) the heavens that were of old [II Pet. 3: 5], (2) the heavens and the earth that

are now [verse 7] and (3) a new heaven and a new earth yet to be created wherein

dwelleth righteousness [verse 13].