What Is The Third Heaven?

Bible Gems 279

Question: What is the third heaven mentioned by the apostle Paul?

Here is the reference:

2Cor. 12:2 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.

There are surprisingly several clues within the context of Paul’s mention of this “third heaven” that shed some light on the subject.

First, Paul uses the term without explanation, as if it were quite familiar to his contemporaries. This is because the “third heaven” was a familiar concept in Jewish circles, made popular by the book of 2 Enoch. While not Scripture, many of the concepts and terms were recognized as accurate and used by such New Testament authorities as Paul, Peter and Jude.

Second, “the third heaven” is experienced in this life through the portal of  “visions and revelations” (v. 1). “Visions and revelations” is a very general expression, and Paul does not specify which of the two was the vehicle for his own experience, and he may not have been sure himself. God reveals Himself in many ways, and “visions” are just one form of such revelations (Heb. 1:1). Twice in the book of Revelation, the apostle John described how his own experience sometimes seemed to engage his physical senses:

         Rev. 19:10  At this I fell at his feet to worship him.

         Rev. 22:8   I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me.

Third, the “third heaven” is identical to “paradise” (v. 4). “Paradise” is the biblical term describing where those who die in a righteous relationship with God enjoy life in His presence prior to their bodily resurrection at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (1Thess. 4:14-17; 1Cor. 15:52). Jesus promised the thief on the cross next to Him who professed his faith in Jesus as the Son of God that he would wake up in Paradise (the “third heaven”) that very day and see Jesus there (Lk. 23:43).

The “third heaven” could be experienced in both the physical and spiritual realm, even though Paul was not certain whether his own experience was “in the body or out of the body.” The book of Revelation supports this:

         Rev. 2:7  Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Likewise, in Luke 16:19-31, Jesus describes Paradise as a beautiful place whose residents, like Lazarus, are fully conscious that they have entered God’s presence after death, and they are aware of those who await Judgment Day in Hades (not Hell, yet) after death. Lazarus and the crucified thief both represent those who Paul describes as having “fallen asleep in” Jesus (1Thes. 4:14, 15).

Who Has Ascended Into Heaven?

Biblegems #147

Question: Jesus says that no one has entered into heaven, yet in the Old Testament both Enoch and Elijah are said to have gone into heaven. Has anyone besides Jesus ascended into heaven, or not?

Here are the three references for the above question:

John 3:13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.

Gen. 5:24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

2Kings 2:11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.

“Heaven” is a very broad term. Depending on the context, it can mean, “sky” (Gen. 7:11); “universe” (Ps. 33:6); the “spiritual realm” where we interact with God, angels and engage in spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:12); and our eternal residence as followers of Jesus Christ in God’s presence (Jn. 14:2).

In addition, the apostle Paul talks of being caught up into the “third heaven”:

         2Cor. 12:2 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.  

The third heaven was a familiar concept in Jewish literature in NT times that referred to Paradise (2Cor. 12:4), also known as “Abraham’s side” (Lk. 16:22). This was the realm of the righteous dead prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus. It would be here, the third heaven or Paradise that Jesus referred to when he said to the dying thief on the cross:

         Luke 23:43  Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.

For the sake of an earthly comparison, we could call the third heaven the anteroom or waiting room of heaven proper. All those who died as faithful believers in the one true God prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ would enter into Paradise. They entered heaven proper upon Jesus’ ascension (Rev. 4:4) awaiting the day when they would receive their resurrection bodies (1Thess. 4:14-17).

Paradise is the “heaven” where Enoch and Elijah, along with all the Old Testament saints such as Abraham, Moses, David and the prophets waited until the resurrection and ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God. So they are in heaven awaiting the Second Coming of Christ  for the resurrection of the body. And for those of us who are “in Christ” now, death takes us immediately into the presence of the Lord in heaven where we too will await the resurrection of the body at His glorious appearing:         

2Cor. 5:8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

So Jesus, our sole authority on heaven, is absolutely correct when He said that no one had gone into heaven (prior to His resurrection) other than Himself. His resurrection and ascension “parted the curtain,” so to speak, giving access to the very presence of God. Until then, God’s faithful people from the Old Testament era awaited their entrance into heaven in Paradise.

When Did Jesus Enter Heaven?

Biblegems #128

Question: In Luke 23:43 Jesus says He will be in Paradise that day, yet Jesus tells Mary on the day of His resurrection that He has not yet returned to the Father. How are these verses reconciled?

I have underlined three words below that are key to understanding this question:

Luke 23:43  Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

John 20:17  Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

The passage in John relates how Mary Magdalene encountered Jesus outside the tomb, when He said to her, “Do not hold on to me…” The word Jesus used there was hapto, meaning “to grasp” or “to clutch.” He didn’t want her to cling to Him was because He had work for her to do before He returned to heaven.

However, the verb translated “returned”[i] has the primary meaning of “go up,” “rise up” or “advance.”[ii]  And the verb’s tense[iii] tells us that Jesus had not yet entered the condition or state of being ascended to the Father. Jesus had not yet ascended, even though He had been resurrected. “In essence, Jesus was saying. “I have not yet entered into an ascended state.”[iv] The “Ascension” state of Jesus’ existence in heaven is at the right hand of the Father as our High Priest:

Heb. 8:1 The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven…

The word “Paradise”[v] is Persian, meaning “park” or “garden.”  It describes the Eden-like environment in the kingdom of heaven:

         Is. 51:3 The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

The apostle Paul testifies to how he once experienced Paradise:

2Cor. 12:2-4 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. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.

Paradise is another term for heaven. If Paul entered Paradise for a brief time while still of this world, the crucified thief could certainly be the first New Testament believer to enter heaven following Jesus’ crucifixion.

Jesus entered heaven the day He died, having overcome sin, death and the grave. That same promise of entering heaven immediately upon death awaits every believer in Jesus:

Rev. 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

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[i] Gk.: anabebaka, from anabaino

[ii] Strong’s Greek New testament Dictionary  

[iii] Perfect Active Indicative: a completed action with ongoing results.

[iv] Expositor’s Bible Commentary, in loc

[v] Gk.: paradeiso