How could Satan re-enter heaven?

[BonnieBj]

If God cannot stand any sin in heaven, which necessitates purgatory for the dead, how is it that Satan is present in heaven and talking to God about Job?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

The passage to which you are referring reads as follows:

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “Whence have you come?” Satan answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”

Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nought? Hast thou not put a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse thee to thy face.”

And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only upon himself do not put forth your hand.” So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord
(Job 1:6-12).

Since we know, as you have stated, that nothing unclean enters heaven, and since we also know that Satan cannot re-enter heaven, those are clues that this passage should not be read as literal history. It is more likely to be a story created by the sacred author based upon the theological truth that God allows the devil to tempt human beings. The sacred author could have simply said, “God allowed Satan to tempt Job to the limits of his endurance,” but the passage is more interesting and compelling when cast into an imagined scene of a debate between God and Satan over the fate of God’s faithful servant, Job.