2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
-2 Corinthians 12:2 Bible, King James Version (KJV)
According to the Mormon Church there are three Kingdoms of Heaven, the Celestial, which is the highest, the Terrestrial and the Telestial the lowest.
35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?... 40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead... -1 Corinthians 15:35-42 Bible, King James Version
Emanuel Swedenborg calls the third highest Kingdom of Heaven the Celestial Kingdom, the second the Spiritual Kingdom and the first the Natural Kingdom. Considering the Light of Heaven comes from the Lord or Masters in Heaven then you may understand why Swedenborg teaches us: 117. …The sun of heaven is the Lord; the light there is the Divine truth and the heat the Divine good that go forth from the Lord as a sun. From this origin are all things that spring forth and are seen in the heavens. In heaven the Lord is seen as a sun, for the reason that He is Divine love, from which all spiritual things, and by means of the sun of the world all natural things, have their existence. That love is what shines as a sun. 118. That the Lord is actually seen in heaven as a sun I have not only been told by angels, but it has occasionally been granted me to see it. …The Lord is seen as a sun, …not directly overhead, …but before the faces of the angels at a middle height. …Those that receive Him with the good of love see Him as a sun, fiery and flaming, in accordance with their reception of Him; these are in His celestial kingdom; while those that receive Him with the good of faith see Him as a moon, white and brilliant in accordance with their reception of Him, and these are in His spiritual kingdom. This is so because good of love corresponds to fire; therefore in the spiritual sense fire is love. 121. When, however, the Lord appears in heaven, which often occurs, He does not appear encompassed with a sun, but in the form of an angel, yet distinguished from angels by the Divine shining through from His face. 123. …All in the heavens are turned constantly to Him those in the celestial kingdom to Him as a sun and those in the spiritual kingdom to Him as a moon. …All in the hells are in love of self and the world. …All in the other life look towards what rules in their interiors, thus to their loves… [Footnotes to Chapter 14: “Fire” in the Word signifies love, both in a good sense and in a bad sense. Holy or heavenly fire signifies the Divine Love. Infernal fire signifies love of self and of the world and every lust of those loves. Love is the fire of life and life itself is really from it. …The hells are at a distance from the heavens because they cannot bear the presence of Divine love from the Lord. For this reason the hells are very far away from the heavens, and this is the “great gulf.” The Lord is the common center to which all things of heaven turn.] (Chapter 14, Heaven and its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen by Emanuel Swedenborg)
Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911], at sacred-texts.com
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[3]...There are three heavens, and each heaven is divided into three degrees; the same is true of the angels who are in them; consequently in each heaven there are higher, middle, and lower angels... (Respecting this division of the heavens and of each heaven, see Arcana Coelestia, n. 4938, 9992, 10005, 10017, 10068; and respecting the lowest degree, n. 3293, 3294, 3793, 4570, 5118, 5126, 5497, 5649, 9216; and in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 29-40.) It should be known, that in the spiritual world, where spirits and angels are, all things have the same appearance as in the natural world where men are, namely, there are mountains, hills, lands, and seas (see above, n. 304). The angels who are in the third [highest] or inmost heaven dwell upon the mountains, those who are in the second or middle heaven dwell upon the hills, and those who are in the first or lowest heaven dwell upon the earth and under the earth, and in the seas. But the seas in which the lowest of that heaven dwell are not like the seas in which the evil dwell; their waters are different. The waters of the seas in which the well-disposed in the lowest heaven dwell are rare and pure; but the waters of the seas in which the evil dwell are gross and impure; thus they are entirely different seas. [4] These seas I have several times been permitted to see, and also to converse with those who are in them; and it was found that those were there who had been in the world merely sensual, and yet well-disposed; and because they were sensual [relating to a person's body, especially as opposed to their spirit] they were unable to understand what the spiritual is, but only what the natural is; nor could they apprehend the Word and the doctrine of the church from the Word except sensually. All these appear to be as if in a sea; but those who are in it do not seem to themselves to be in a sea, but as it were in an atmosphere like that in which they had lived while in the world; they appear to be in a sea only to those who are above them. At this day [1757-9] there is an immense number there, because so many at this day are sensual. This lowest part of heaven corresponds to the soles of the feet [of heaven which is in the form of a Grand Man.] ...[10] ...in the spiritual world; all societies there appear surrounded by an atmosphere corresponding to their affections and thoughts; those in the third heaven appear in an atmosphere pure as the ethereal atmosphere; those in the second heaven appear in an atmosphere less pure, like the aerial; while the societies in the lowest part of heaven appear surrounded by an atmosphere, as it were watery; but those in the hells appear surrounded by gross and impure atmospheres, some of them as if in black waters, and others in other ways. It is the affections and the thoughts therefrom that produce these appearances around them; for spheres are exhaled from all, and these spheres are changed into such appearances. (Of these spheres, see Arcana Coelestia, n. 2489, 4464, 5179, 7454, 8630.) ...everyone has an internal and an external man, or a spiritual and a natural; the internal or spiritual man sees from the light of heaven, but the external or natural man sees from the light of the world.
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