Heaven Is For Real

     It is difficult to comprehend that Jesus existed before he was born. That is because Jesus is God, and his appearance is whenever God manifests Himself. Christians must forget the notion of "three persons" of the Holy Trinity; there are three substances but only one Person. The Old Testament is all about Jesus. The one - Jesus - who came after John the Baptist was before him (John 1:30). Not only was Jesus before the Baptist but was eternally before him:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.(John 1:1-3, 14).

     Jesus was there in the beginning. Where was he? He was, is, and always will be God.  The New Testament refers to Stephen's vision of God:

Hath not my (God's) hand made all these things? ... But he (Stephen), being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,  And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. (Acts 7:50, 55-56).

     The "right hand of God" is not a physical position; it is a metaphor for "a place of honour or authority" (Strong's Dictionary; dexioj.) Jesus was always representative of God's authority. God's "hand" was His will. When God's will be done, it was recognition of the authority of Jesus. Isaiah the prophet understood Jesus. Like Stephen, Isaiah saw Jesus! The Holy Ghost - the Ghost of Jesus - allowed Stephen to see clearly into Heaven, and the Holy Spirit - the Power of God - allowed Isaiah to see, not the Ghost of Jesus, but Jesus very clearly before he was born.
     For those who read my commentary regularly, you should know that the Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost is the same "substance" of God. The King James Version only, in context, used the Greek word, pneuma, interchangeably for "spirit" and "ghost." The difference seems to be a matter of experience:

(But this spake he of the Spirit (pneuma), which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost (pneuma) was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:39).

    Jesus's transition from life to death was also the experience of the Holy Spirit: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost" (Luke 23:46). Isaiah, again, saw the person Jesus before Jesus was ever born! Read what Isaiah saw:

Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together. Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me. Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. (Isaiah 48:16-17)

     Jesus is who Isaiah saw in the past laying the foundation of the Earth, and teaching the Way to salvation in his ministry at Jerusalem. Did Isaiah see Jesus's hand? He surely did. Did he see Jesus's right hand? Likewise, according to scripture. He saw more than a metaphor. Although, Isaiah saw God's honor and authority in Jesus, he also saw Jesus physically. Isaiah saw both the Son of God and Son of Man.
     What aspect of Jesus was the "Son of Man?" He is the physical man Jesus - God's Flesh born of mankind in Mary's womb. Jesus has the same senses and emotions that everyone has. He and man have the same image! God knew what appearance that He would assume and gave mankind the same appearance, as is written: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom 8:29). It is no coincidence that Jesus looks the same as men, and men look the same as Jesus.
    Jesus's character or spiritual "nature" - the Spirit of God - looked like God's because Jesus was, is, and always will be God! The "Son of God" is God's spiritual image in Jesus: "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Cor 15:49). We all, including Jesus, have two images; one for the Earth and the other for Heaven. The body is the soul's physical image, and the Spirit, the soul's Heavenly image.
     It is the soul which is immortal. It was there before the foundation of the world (Ephes 1:4) and will be thereafter, embodied in incorruptible glorious flesh (1 Cor 15:52). The soul is mankind's constant. God breathed life unto man and he became "a living soul (Gen 2:7). In that context, living is here on Earth, because the soul pre-existed the beginning.
     That Stephen saw Jesus after he was resurrected and taken to Heaven validates that Jesus was real and is still alive. Corroborating evidence for Stephen's deposition is Isaiah's deposition. Isaiah saw a vision of Jesus creating the universe, and another of Jesus ministering to mankind in Israel. Perhaps Isaiah saw Jesus in Heaven as well because he saw the way men should go.
     Someone that Paul knew "fourteen years ago" went up into the third heaven in either body or spirit. Paul did not know. (2 Cor 12:2). That letter was written circa 56 A.D. (Biblehub). Stephen was stoned circa 36 A.D. (Wikipedia; St. Stephen). Paul was converted sometime between 33-36 A.D. (Wikipedia; Conversion of Paul). Simple subtraction is that it may have been neither Paul nor Stephen who went up to the third heaven. However, if it was one or the other, since circa means "around those dates," Stephen was a likely candidate as was Paul. Perhaps both Stephen and Paul went to the third heaven spiritually because they both saw Jesus in Heaven. Maybe Paul was recounting his experience much as the account of Stephen. However, if the dates are right, then Paul must have been the one who visited the third heaven because Stephen was dead and was there, whereas Paul was still alive and could have went there after his conversion.
     In one of my earlier commentaries, I dismissed the idea that it was Paul, because of dates. Because Paul could have visited the third heaven subsequent to his conversion, that leaves Paul as the likely person who saw heaven and testified to it. Isaiah, Stephen, and Paul vaidated that Heaven is for real!