Why does Les connect Paul's stoning at Derbe with 2 Corinthians 12?
The connection is chronological: Paul's stoning at Derbe occurred around A.D. 41–42 during his first missionary journey, while 2 Corinthians was written around A.D. 60. This timing links the stoning where he was dragged out for dead to Paul's account of being caught up to the third heaven, out of the body.
Les explains that the reason he ties this with the stoning in Derbe is because chronologically it fits. Paul was probably in about 41 or 42 AD when he was on that first missionary journey, and 2 Corinthians was written in about 60. So chronologically it fits that when Paul was stoned at Derbe and dragged out for dead, he experienced this tremendous opportunity then to see the glories of Heaven. Les thinks it is pretty obvious that Paul was out of the body: the body was the one lying outside Derbe having been stoned, while the soul and spirit took flight and was caught up to the third heaven.
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.