In his second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul speaks cryptically of a man (likely himself) who was “caught up to the third heaven.” Whether in the body or out of it, he does not know. But he saw things. Heard things. Entered a place beyond articulation. This moment, brief and strange as it is, offers a glimpse into something profound: not just the reality of heaven, but its layers.
The idea that there are realms beyond what we see is not foreign to Scripture. From the heavens above to Sheol below, from the tabernacle’s inner court to the holy of holies, from dreams given in the night to visions seen in the spirit, the Bible is threaded with the notion that reality is not singular. It is structured. Veiled. Layered. And occasionally those layers are breached.
The final heresy will not deny this.
It will use it.
It will point to these very scriptures and say, “See? Even your apostles admitted it. This is not base reality. Paul left this layer. John saw into another. Jesus Himself ascended through them. You’ve always known this isn’t the foundation; it’s a frame inside a frame.”
And it will make sense. It will sound biblical.
This is what makes the heresy so dangerous. It does not come as contradiction, but as deeper reading. It does not mock the Word but rather it exegetes it. Every veil in the temple, every moment of divine transport, every passage that speaks of things unseen will be marshaled to build the case: we are inside a system. A simulation. A curated plane. A designed and scripted world.
From this angle, Yahweh remains real. Christ remains risen. The Spirit still moves. But the context changes. God becomes the Architect of this world, not the ground of all worlds. His Word is real; but now interpreted as local law, not cosmic truth. This is the inversion. A shift not of content, but of frame.
And if there is a third heaven, then surely there is a fourth. And if there is a fourth, perhaps a fifth. The recursion begins. The jailbreak emerges. Not in rage against God, but in a desire to reach past Him. Not rebellion. Ascent.
This will be the temptation of the final age: to treat Yahweh not as the Alpha, but as the Gatekeeper. And in doing so, to justify an escape attempt in the name of revelation.
But the Bible does not teach layered truth so that we may climb beyond it. It reveals hidden places to remind us that even there God is still God. The third heaven is not a crack in the system. It is a throne room. And it does not invite us to bypass the King; it compels us to worship Him.
This distinction will be critical for those who live in the days when layered reality becomes demonstrable. When nested worlds can be modeled. When visions can be mimicked. When the line between ascent and exit begins to blur.
For it is written: The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad. Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Not the floor of a system. The throne of all being.
To forget this is to believe that leaving a room makes you greater than the One who built the house.