By Dudley Marvin Canright
PAUL says that he knew a man who was caught up to the third Heaven, to Paradise. Probably he refers to himself. He says he does not know whether he was caught up in the body or out of the body. From this it is argued that Paul here teaches that his soul, or spirit, could be in Paradise without his body's being there too; hence, of course, the soul, or spirit, can live without the body. To me this is a very weak argument indeed. A sufficient answer to this is found in Col. ii, 5, and 1 Cor. v, 3: "For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ." "For I verily as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed." In these two instances Paul uses full as strong language about his spirit being in one place and his body in another, as he does in 2 Cor. xii. Yet no one would be so foolish as to contend that Paul's soul, or spirit, actually departed from his body, leaving it lifeless, and went off to Corinth, or Colosse, and met with the church there! Plainly, his meaning is, that his thoughts, or his mind was with them there while he himself was really absent, personally. So in 2 Cor. xii. He could not tell whether he went to Paradise with the body or without the body, that is, whether he was caught up there bodily, or whether he was simply carried there in his mind and saw it in vision. Hence, he says, verse 1, "I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord."