http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeLPw7nFQns

1. Salvation by grace through faith. 2. Inspiration and supreme authority of

Scripture. 3. Priesthood of all believers. 4. Believers’ baptism by immersion. 5. Separation of church & state/religious

liberty. 6. Regenerate church membership. 7. Autonomous congregational church

gov’t. yet wider cooperative relationships.

Leon McBeth’s Baptist Heritage separates “continuation of Baptist teachings through the ages” and “succession of Baptist churches through the ages.”—both are really variations of successionism

successionists believe that Baptists (or their ideas) have been in existence since the 1st century—they posit an unbroken historical chain back to John the Baptist (or Jesus)

some similarities to “apostolic succession” taught by Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Anglicanism (chain of bishops back to the apostle Peter)

Using Matt. 16:13-20, successionists see an unbroken chain of local Baptist churches showing true marks of the church going back to 1st century

G. H. Orchard—English Baptist who wrote A Concise History of Baptists in England (1838)—pub. in America in 1855 with intro. By J. R. Graves (context of denominational rivalry on American frontier)—in 1931 J. M. Carroll offered a more condensed version of Orchard’s thesis with his famous Trail of Blood

J. M. Cramp—Canadian Baptist who wrote Baptist History: From the Foundations of the Christian Church to the Close of the Eighteenth Century (1868)

John T. Christian—prof. at Baptist Bible Institute (now NOBTS) in New Orleans—wrote 2-vol. A History of the Baptists (1922)

sees a chain of true and proper baptisms dating back to 1st century—sometimes baptismal successionism tied in with church successionism

Joseph Ivimey published 4-vol. History of the English Baptists (1812-1830)

argument that principles/ideas evident in groups or individuals who have essentially maintained a Baptist witness since the 1st century—there was never a time when all the basic principles/ideas needed for a true church were absent

Thomas Crosby—another English Baptist—wrote 4-vol. The History of the English Baptists (1738-40)

David Benedict—pub. 2-vol. A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America and Other Parts of the World (1813)

Thomas Armitage—American—wrote A History of the Baptists (1887)—specifically repudiated church successionism

A. H. Newman—A History of Antipaedobaptism (1897)

McBeth—not a successionist, but note statement from pamphlet “Baptist Beginnings”: “The earliest Baptists recovered and proclaimed anew the old faith that has come down the centuries from the Lord and his apostles. The Baptist denomination dates from the seventeenth century; the Baptist faith, we believe, dates from the first century.”

McBeth in The Baptist Heritage (p. 61): “The seventeenth-century Baptists did not invent these doctrines; they rediscovered and articulated them afresh for a new era.”

at the same time, it does not appear that McBeth holds to an unbroken ideological line

ecclesiology—nature of the church—is it local only or local and universal?—successionists say local assembly only

are Baptists Protestants?—successionists say no

W. Morgan Patterson—Baptist Successionism: A Critical View (1969)

James McGoldrick—Baptist Successionism: A Crucial Question in Baptist History (1994)

critiques have focused on problem of historical data (“missing links”) and the reality that many dissenting groups identified by successionists as “Baptist” or “Baptistic” were heretical

traces a spiritual relationship or “kinship” between Baptists and 16th-century Anabaptists—this theory can overlap with successionism with the Anabaptists viewed as a key link in the chain or trail

this theory argues that Anabaptists were forerunners of English Separatism and helped some Separatists move from infant baptism to believers’ baptism

Walter Rauschenbusch—German-American social gospeler who identified Baptists with socially radical Anabaptists

A. C. Underwood—English Baptist who emphasized influence of Anabaptists on John Smyth—see A History of the English Baptists (1947)

William Estep—taught at SWBTS—articles in the Quarterly Review in 1968 & 1969 promoted Anabaptist kinship—see also his The Anabaptist Story (orig. pub. in 1963)

Glen Stassen—formerly of SBTS, now at Fuller Seminary—2 articles in Baptist History & Heritage in Spring 1998 drew links between Menno Simons (1496-1561) and the 1st London Confession (1644)

Paige Patterson, et al. at SWBTS attempting to revive interest in Anabaptists—he established an annual Radical Reformation Day (Jan. 21)

problems—even though there were similarities between Baptists and Anabaptists, we will see that there were also significant differences

contends that Baptists came from certain English Separatists who practiced congregational church polity and came to embrace believers’ baptism alone as valid according to NT

this theory focuses on context of English Puritanism and Separatism in late 16th, early 17th centuries as most significant for rise of the Baptists

William Whitsitt—prof./president of SBTS—pub. A Question in Baptist History (1896)—dated origin of Baptists to recovery of immersion in 1641—this view endorsed by A. H. Strong of Rochester Seminary in a 1904 address

John Shakespeare—English Baptist—wrote Baptist and Congregational Pioneers (1906)—traced Baptist roots to English Particular Baptists, cutting out General Baptist line

Henry Vedder—prof. at Crozer Seminary—pub. A Short History of the Baptists (1907)—misleadingly categorized by McBeth (p. 58) under “continuation of biblical teachings” view—Vedder wrote: “After 1610 we have an unbroken succession of Baptist churches” and “from the year 1641, at the latest, Baptist doctrine and practice have been the same in all essential features that they are today.”

English Separatist descent theory the most widely held view by modern Baptist historians—e.g., Robert Torbet, Winthrop Hudson, Robert Baker