The next question here by Sean Tanner: "What did the early Church believe in regards to baptism and the expulsion of demons?" Okay, and I'm going to give you just a real brief one on this, Sean. It's a very good question, because there was a connection. And how they practiced baptism—and it's so universal, I have to believe it goes back to the days of the Apostles—they would, before they were baptized, renounce Satan, his pomp, and his angels. His pomp meaning his glory and that sort of thing.
And then they would make a profession of faith in belief in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, along with what that meant. And so in that, they would renounce Satan specifically. They would point to the West, which was viewed symbolically as the realm of darkness and evil, because the sun rises in the East, sets in the West, and make that renunciation.
And so they were publicly renouncing Satan and his demons before they were baptized, and then when they were baptized, they were free from any connection with Satan and his demons, unless they went back and started serving them again. So there was, I don't know if you would call it an exorcism—some have used that term, I don't know if I would call it that—but yeah, there was a definite step there that baptism severed that tie with Satan and his demons and their world. That's really interesting.
When I was baptized, one of the things that was instructed to me was, the question got proposed, "Do you renounce Satan in all of his pernicious ways?" And I didn't realize that how old that went back, that basically that statement, or a statement to that extent. I didn't realize that that was—I thought that was kind of a localized practice within my church community there. Yeah. Very ancient, almost to the doorsteps of the Apostles. And like I say, I feel pretty certain it was started by them, yeah.
That's really interesting.
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