The Witness of Paul PAUL THE APOSTLE records his experience of being translated to heaven in II Cor. 12:7: "And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revela tions, that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be ex alted ovemmch." The experience to which he refers here was probably the occasion when he was stoned at Lystra and dragged outside the city and left for dead as we find in Acts 14:19: "But there came Jews thither from Antioch and Iconium: and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead." Paul knew what he was talking about when he said, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." Obviously, God raised him from the dead. He speaks of the third heaven in II Cor. 12:2, "I knew a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I know not; or whether out of the body, I know not; God knoweth), such an one caught up even to the third heaven." Scripture knows nothing of the "7th heaven" but it does speak of the three heavens:
1st-Clouds of heaven 2nd-Stars of l1eaven 3rd-Throne of God
Paul was forbidden to speak of the things he heard, that is a revelation in itself. You cannot put into words the glories and wonders of heaven. Earth's tape meas ure is of no value there. You cannot reduce the infinite to finite terms. Heaven cannot be placed on the draw ing board and charted with a slide rule. No adjective is adequate to describe heaven. Men have exhausted adjectives in their advertising of man made products. The billboard reads: "stupendous, fabu lous, amazing, gigantic, incredible, colossal, unbeliev- 7
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