Quote:
Originally Posted by UntoHim
Boy, this might be the first time "the space-time continuum" was mentioned on the forum...guess there's a first time for everything. I think Paul describes his experience in about as much detail as he could muster in 2 Corinthians 12:
...I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.
Pretty heady stuff from a conservative Jewish rabbi. I don't believe that "visions and revelations of the Lord" were part of the curriculum in 1st century Judaism. This was clearly a special and unique "experience" that Paul went through. I'm not altogether sure that this experience was through "an ordinary human cognitive apparatus like the rest of us", and since this experience was unique to Paul, I don't think it really matters one way or another.
|
It very much matters whether Paul thought like an ordinary human being or not. For, if he didn't, how would we understand him or him us? But, there is much evidence that he was an ordinary human who thought pretty much like the rest of us. He didn't profess to have some kind of magical super-intelligence. And to support my claim, I have to look no further than the passage that you yourself quoted. Because there Paul states "I do not know" not once but twice. So we see that there was a limit to Paul's revelation. He who preached about natural and spiritual bodies with such authority in I Corinthians 15 admits here that he did not know if his own visions and revelations were in-the-body or out-of-body experiences.