More
Conflicting Bible Texts
Eternal
Hell (Continued)
Baptism
of the Dead
Who
Went to Heaven?
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Apparent
Conflict #4 – Who went to
Heaven?
For
centuries, there has been confusion
about 2 Corinthians 12. The question
is whether Paul was taken in vision
to meet a man who had died and gone
to Heaven or Paul himself went to
Heaven.
To appreciate
the importance of 2 Corinthians 12,
some background information is
necessary. (When resolving apparent
conflicts, circumstances and setting
always have to be considered.) When
Paul wrote 2 Corinthians, he was
confined to prison in Rome. Some
Messianic Jews (Pharisee converts,
also known as Judaizers) had gone
from Jerusalem to Corinth and their
“sophisticated teachings”
had gained considerable traction in
Corinth. Messianic Jews were visiting
the churches Paul established because
they thought it was their religious
duty to restore the importance of
Jewish traditions by “cleaning
up” the false teachings which
Paul had been promoting. Since Paul
was not present to rebuke their
teachings, they faced little
opposition at Corinth.
Naturally,
Paul was not pleased to hear about
the impact which the Messianic Jews
had at Corinth because it was the
same impact which they had in other
places as well. Several years
earlier, Paul had a face to face
confrontation with them and the story
goes like this:
“When
peter came to Antioch, I opposed him
to his face, because he was clearly
in the wrong….Before certain men
came [to Antioch] from
James [the president of the
church in Jerusalem], he
[Peter] used to eat with the
Gentiles [which was not
permitted for a Jew to do]. But
when they [the Messianic
Jews] arrived, he began to
draw back and separate himself from
the Gentiles because he was afraid of
those who belonged to the
circumcision group [those
insisting that a man be circumcised
in order to be an heir of Abraham and
thus be saved] …. [Then] The
other Jews [with Peter] joined
him in his hypocrisy, so that by
their hypocrisy even Barnabus
[my dear companion in the Lord] was
led astray… When I saw that they
were not acting in line with the
truth of the gospel, I said to Peter
in front of them all, “You are a
Jew, yet you live like a Gentile
[when the Messianic Jews are not
around] and not like a Jew,
how is it, then [when the
Judaizers show up], that you
force Gentiles to follow Jewish
customs”?
The Messianic
Jews had argued quite successfully
among Jewish converts that Christians
must not leave the traditions and
rituals of Judaism behind and the
Judaizers insisted that new Gentile
converts must embrace circumcision
and baptism, and other Jewish
practices and sacraments. This
created conflict in the church at
Corinth, because Gentile converts did
not want to be identified with Jews
or as Jews. Because of the
“credentials” of the
Messianic Jews (they were rabbis)
made them “experts” in
religious matters, Paul challenged
the church of Corinth to compare his
credentials with the credentials of
the Judaizers:
“Are
they [the Messianic Jews] Hebrews?
So am I, Are they Israelites? So Am
I. Are they Abraham’s
[biological] descendants? So
am I. Are they servants of Christ? (I
am out of my mind to talk like this.)
I am more. I have worked much harder,
been in prison more frequently, been
flogged more severely, and been
exposed to death again and again.
Five times I received from the Jews
the forty lashes minus one. Three
times I was beaten with rods, once I
was stoned, three times I was
shipwrecked, I spent a night and a
day in the open sea, I have been
constantly on the move, I have been
in danger from rivers, in danger from
bandits, in danger from my own
countrymen, in danger from the
Gentiles;
in danger in the city, in danger in
the country, in danger at sea; and in
danger from false brothers. I have
labored and toiled and have gone
without sleep; I have known hunger
and thirst and have often gone
without food; I have been cold and
naked. Besides everything else, I
face daily the pressure of my concern
for all the churches.”
(2 Corinthians 11: 22-28)
“If
I must boast, I will boast of the
things that show my weakness. The God
and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is
to be praised forever, knows that I
am not lying [exaggerating],
I must go on boasting. Although there
is nothing to be gained, I will go on
to visions and revelations from the
Lord. (So that you can determine for
yourselves who is better prepared to
speak for the Lord?) I know a man in
Christ who fourteen years ago was
caught up to the third heaven [where
God dwells]. 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. I
will boast about a man like that, but
I will not boast about myself, except
about my weaknesses. Even if I should
choose to boast, I would not be a
fool, because I would be speaking the
truth. But I refrain, so no will
think more of me than is warranted by
what I do or say.” (2
Corinthians 11: 30 – 12: 6)
Of course, no
one among the Messianic Jews came
close to matching Paul’s
dedication, experience, or
credentials. However, did you notice
that near the end of Paul’s
report that he suddenly begins to
speak of himself in the third person.
“I know a man….” Paul
used this literary technique to
separate himself from self-promotion.
Consider two problems.
First,
everyone knows that dreams and
visions cannot be investigated. The
event cannot be replicated, studied,
validated, or even confirmed. Liars
know this. Therefore, a person can
report a dream and no one can say if
it is a lie or the truth. For this
reason, dreams and visons do not have
any corporate value unless (a) they
come with a revelation from God, that
is information otherwise unknown is
revealed and there is no
corroborating evidence that God has
spoken, and (b) the report of the
dream conforms with the Word of God
in terms of present truth. (See
Deuteronomy 13: 1-5 and Ezekiel 13:
1; 16.) God does give dreams, but 99%
of the time their value is limited on
one individual, the person who
received the dream. (Joel 2:28)
Second, there
is a simple rule about boasting.
Jesus referred to this rule when He
said: “If I testify
about myself, my testimony is not
valid.” (John 5:31)
Anyone can say anything about himself
that he wants, but truth is
established by two or more witnesses.
(1 Timothy 5:19) This is why Jesus
said: “’There is
another who testifies in my favor,
and I know that his testimony about
me is valid. You have sent to John
and he has testified to the truth.’”
(John 5: 32, 33) Anyone can boast
because boasting is vanity, but
validation by two or three witnesses
establishes a fact.
Paul spoke of
being taken to Paradise in the third
person because he did not want to
escalate boasting among the Messianic
Jews by playing
“ego-cards.” Any of the
rabbis could have duplicated
Paul’s boast of being in
Paradise and no one in Corinth would
have known the difference. Saying you
have received a vision from God does
not prove that a vision was received.
Paul acknowledged the foolishness of
telling the church about his vision
and he added an interesting twist. He
told the church that God gave him a
thorn in the flesh to keep him from
being overcome with vanity. Paul knew
that he was telling the truth, but
Paul also knew the Holy Spirit would
somehow validate his testimony before
the church.
“Even
if I should choose to boast, I would
not be a fool, because I would be
speaking the truth. But I refrain, so
no one will think more of me than is
warranted by what I do or say. To
keep me from being conceited because
of these surpassingly great
revelations, there was given me a
thorn in my flesh, a messenger of
Satan, to torment me. Three times I
pleaded with the Lord to take it from
me. But he said to me, “My grace
is sufficient for you, for my power
is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore, I will boast all the more
gladly about my weaknesses, so that
Christ’s power may rest on me.
That is why, for Christ’s sake,
I delight in weaknesses, in insults,
in headships, in persecution, in
difficulties. For when I am weak,
then I am strong.”
(2
Corinthians 2: 6-10) I believe
Paul’s vision was permanently
degraded on the road to Damascus
(Acts 22:11) and although God
improved his sight, it was still
poor. As a scholar, this limitation
was ‘a real thorn in his
flesh.” If this conclusion is
true, this verse confirms it. “See
what large letters I use as I write
to you with my own hand!”
(Galatians 6:11)
Given the
conflict, setting, and circumstances
in Corinth, the mystery concerning 2
Corinthians 12 is resolved. Paul was
taken to Heaven in a vison (just like
John in Revelation 4) to see
realities to wonderful to express. I
would like to close this
report by
expressing my deepest appreciation to
the apostle Paul. He not only
deserves “The Medal of
Honor,” he deserves a golden
crown! His incredible sacrifices for
Jesus continue to influence lives and
his expansive knowledge of God’s
ways and plans continues to expand my
understanding of God’s great
love. When we all get to Heaven, I am
going to find him as soon as possible
and give him a hug!
Larry Wilson
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