Paul’s Trip To Heaven
In 2 Corinthians 12:1-5 Paul tells
of his trip to Heaven, he prefaces his experience as if it was not his own and
so many Bible Scholars believe it was not his, yet many Bible scholars believe
that it was Paul’s personal experience. For all of my 50 years as a Christian I
went back and forth on whether this was Paul’s personal experience or not. Now
I believe it was and here is why:
Between 55 and 56 AD Paul wrote
the letter, in verse 2 he states; “I know a man in CHRIST who fourteen years
ago-“, so about 42 AD. I originally thought this might have happened when he
spent three days fasting and praying in Damascus after his face to face meeting
with JESUS; where JESUS told him to go to Damascus where he would be told what
he must do; “But JESUS said to Ananias, ‘Go for he is a chosen vessel of Mine
to bear My Name before Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel; for I Will
show him how many things he must suffer for My Name’s sake.’” “‘Saul, Saul, why
are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So I
said, ‘Who are You LORD?’ and He said, ‘I Am JESUS, Whom you are persecuting,
but rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this Purpose,
to make you a Minister and a Witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet Reveal to
you’”(Acts 9:1-19, 26:1-23)!
But that was well before 42 AD, I now
believe he had his visit to Heaven while he was isolated in Tarsus for a couple
of years, before Barnabas took him to Antioch from where The Holy Spirit chose
them to go to the nations with The Gospel Message. That timing would fit better
to the timing he mentioned in his defense in Acts 26.
The reason he included this
testimony was to highlight his next teaching in his letter;. humility and
obedience. No matter how you serve if people are not paying attention then you
are doing it wrong; we must be 100% yielded to GOD’s Purpose and Will for our
Life and Ministry!
No comments:
Post a Comment