Baptist successionism

Baptist successionism (or Baptist perpetuity) is a controversial theory about the origins of the Baptist tradition. The theory postulates an unbroken lineage of churches (since the days of John the Baptist or the Book of Acts) which have held beliefs similar to those of current Baptists. Groups often included in this lineage include the Montanists, Paulicians, Paterines, Cathari, Waldenses, Albigenses, and Anabaptists. Although there exists variation within successionist theories, particularly in the inclusion of Messalianism, Jovinianism, alongside some Lollards and Hussites. Modern scholarship and even most Baptists today label the theory as being pseudohistorical, without sufficient historical support.

This view today is held mostly by fundamentalist and some conservative Baptists, and was historically associated with writers such as John Spittlehouse (1652), Jesse Mercer (1769–1841), Charles Spurgeon (1834 – 1892), and James Milton Carroll (1852 – 1931) among some others.

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