You had said that nothing imperfect can be in heaven. You might have to defend that from these verses.
Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.
Job 1:7 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.”
I contacted a friend who responded as follows:
Q: How could Satan re-enter heaven to talk to God about Job in Job 1:6–12?
A: Since we know that nothing unclean enters heaven (Rev. 21:27), and since we also know that Satan cannot re-enter heaven (CCC 391–393), those are clues that this passage should not be read as literal history. The passage 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 said, “God allowed Satan to tempt Job to the limits of his endurance,” but the passage becomes more interesting and compelling when cast as a debate between God and Satan over the fate of God’s faithful servant, Job.
The Bible is a collection of books that use a variety of literary forms to convey theological truth. The Second Vatican Council’s document on divine revelation states:
To search out the intention of the sacred writers, attention should be given, among other things, to “literary forms.” For truth is set forth and expressed differently in texts that are variously historical, prophetic, poetic, or of other forms of discourse. The interpreter must investigate what meaning the sacred writer intended to express and actually expressed in particular circumstances by using contemporary literary forms in accordance with the situation of his own time and culture (
Dei Verbum 12).Some Catholic theologians have also expressed the opinion that even if the passage is meant literally, Satan (as Lucifer) and God conversed but that Satan had to remain just outside of Heaven. This is not contrary to Scripture in the sense that God also conversed with Adam outside of Heaven, before and even after the fall. God spoke to Cain, who was plotting murder in his heart against Abel. So, God spoke even to the unrighteous, the unclean, here on earth outside the boundaries of Heaven. It was not necessary for Adam to enter Heaven to carry on a conversation with God, nor the other patriarchs and prophets of the OT, before Heaven was opened. That is because God can talk even to the sinful without them being admitted to His Beatific Vision, which was what Satan forfeited by his rebellion. Otherwise, the Protestant who posits that somehow the chief of all sinners and liars could actually enter and leave Heaven must not contradict the clear statement in Revelation:
The treasure and wealth of the nations will be brought there, but nothing unclean will enter it, nor any (one) who does abominable things or tells lies. Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Did the devil get his name entered into the Lamb’s book of life? If not, then Scripture plainly states that he couldn’t enter Heaven. And even if he tries to say that this passage is only referring to the New Jerusalem, that’s all kinds of ludicrous, since the description is most clearly that of God’s Heavenly Home, which He share only with His good angels and saints who have been rewarded for their obedience to Him.
