...............................................................................................................................................................
The Third Heaven
What
is the third heaven?
Marten Visser
Your question: What
is the third heaven?
Paul
wrote that he was “caught up to the third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2).
In the
next verse he calls the same place “paradise”.
Paradise, or the
third heaven, is the place where God is.
Jesus
promised to the criminal on the cross: “Today you will be with me in
paradise” (Luke
23:43).
They will be in the
presence of God together.
So ‘third heaven’
(which only appears once in the Bible) has the same meaning as how we normally
use the word ‘heaven’.
Various ways of
heaven
Why then is Paul
talking about ‘third heaven’ and not just ‘heaven’?
That is to make sure
his readers do not misunderstand him.
‘Heaven’ or ‘heavens’
is used in various ways in the Bible.
The first meaning of ‘heavens’
is the atmosphere of the earth. Examples of this are:
• ‘the birds of the heavens’ (Genesis 1:26)
• ‘the windows of the heavens were closed,
the rain from the heavens was restrained’ (Genesis 8:2).
• ‘he will shut up the heavens, so that
there will be no rain’ (Deuteronomy 11:17).
• ‘you will see the Son of Man seated at the
right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven’ (Matthew 26:64).
The second meaning of
‘heavens’ is the stars beyond the earth’s atmosphere. Examples of this
are:
• ‘There was under his feet as it were a pavement
of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness’ (Exodus 24:10).
• ‘I will surely multiply your offspring as
the stars of heaven’, (Genesis
22:17).
• ‘served other gods and worshiped them, or
the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden’ (Deuteronomy 17:3)
• ‘I saw a vision, something like a great
sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners’ (Acts 11:5).
The third meaning of
heavens is the dwelling place of God. Examples of this use of the word are:
• ‘And listen in heaven your dwelling place,
and when you hear, forgive’ (1 Kings 8:30).
• ‘then I will hear from heaven and will
forgive their sin and heal their land’ (2 Chronicles 7:14).
• ‘The LORD has established his throne in
the heavens’ (Psalms
103:19).
• ‘give glory to your Father who is in
heaven’ (Matthew
5:16).
Mixed use of heaven
Often ‘heaven’
is used in a way that these three meanings are more or less mixed. For example:
• When Jacob flees Esau, we read ‘And he
dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it
reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending
on it!’ (Genesis
28:12).
• “Jesus then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I
say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father
gives you the true bread from heaven’” (John 6:32).
In the presence of
the Lord
So,
when Paul was writing about ‘third heaven’, he meant to say: ‘I was
not in the clouds, I was not among the stars – I was in the presence of God!’
That is a deep and
overwhelming joy that each of us will experience if we have trusted in the Lord
Jesus as our Saviour.
100%
Free Bible Course
We now
offer a 100% free, Internet based Bible course. In 15 short lessons you will
learn God's message for you in his Word.
CLICK
HERE TO ENROLL
Marten
Visser
(1971), experienced a call from the Lord to be a missionary while in
Kindergarten. He received M.Div., Th.M. in Missiology, M.A. in cultural
anthropology degrees and a Ph.D. degree in Theology. In 2000 he became a church
planting missionary in Thailand with OMF, together with his wife Esther. In
2015 he returned to the Netherlands where he founded GlobalRize. He continues
to serve as GlobalRize’s director of evangelism.
No comments:
Post a Comment