Baptist successionism

Baptist successionism (also known as "Baptist perpetuity") is one of several theories on the origin and continuation of Baptist churches. The tenet of the theory is that there has been an unbroken chain of churches since the days of John the Baptist, who baptized Christ, which have held similar beliefs (though not always the name) of current Baptists. Ancient anti-paedobaptist groups, such as the Montanists, Paulicians, Cathari, Waldenses, Albigenses, and Anabaptists, have been among those viewed by Baptist successionists as the predecessors of modern-day Baptists.

Articulation of the theory

Diagram representing the Trail of Blood as presented by J. M. Carroll.

The perpetuity view is often identified with The Trail of Blood, a pamphlet by J.M. Carroll published in 1931. Other Baptist writers who held the perpetuity view are John T. Christian, Thomas Crosby, G. H. Orchard, J. M. Cramp, William Cathcart, Adam Taylor and D. B. Ray.

This view was once commonly held among Baptists. Since the end of the 19th Century, however, the theory has increasingly come under attack and today has been largely discredited. Nonetheless, the view continued to be the prevailing view among Baptists of the Southern U.S. into the latter 20th century. It is now identified primarily with Landmarkism, though not exclusively so. The concept finds its parallels in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican doctrine of apostolic succession and stands in contrast to the restorationist views of Latter Day Saints and the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement.

Modern rejection of the theory

Since the end of the 19th century the trend in academic Baptist historiography has been away from the successionist viewpoint to the view that modern day Baptists are an outgrowth of 17th century English Separatism. This shift precipitated a controversy among Southern Baptists which occasioned the forced resignation of William H. Whitsitt, a professor at Southern Baptist Seminary, in 1898 from the seminary for advocating the new view, though his views continued to be taught in the seminary after his departure.