Did Paul have an out-of-body experience and visit Heaven in 2 Corinthians 12?
First, let’s consider what Paul actually wrote:
“It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord: I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” 2 Corinthians 12:1–4
The most important key to understand this passage is in the opening verse. Paul clearly states that his experience was a “vision” or “revelation of the Lord.” Nowhere in these verses is there a hint of reference to death or resurrection.
Paul’s soul did not leave His body. His confusion was not over whether or not he had died, but only how he was able to perceive paradise in his vision, even though it felt as though he’d been taken there in bodily form.
Paul is clearly being transparent to the fact that he was entirely unsure how it all happened, but one thing is sure—he did not actually die, but experienced a rather vivid, dream-like vision. Notice how he uses similar language when writing to the Christian church in Colossae:
“For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.” Colossians 2:5
No one interprets this text to mean that Paul left his body to visit the Christians in Colossae in ghostly form. Likewise, 2 Corinthians 12:1–4 is a record of Paul’s experience in vision only. He did not literally leave His body to visit Heaven. He was only unsure of how to perceive all that had happened in the revelation he experienced.