George Herbert Orchard1796-1861 G.H. Orchard Baptist held to successionism (or Baptist perpetuity) is one of several theories on the origin and ... Other Baptist writers who held the perpetuity view are John T. Christian, Thomas Crosby, G. H. Orchard, J. M. Cramp, WilliamCathcart, Adam Taylor and D. B. Ray. This view was once commonly held among Baptists.[4] Since the end of the 19th century, however, the theory has increasingly come under attack and today has been largely discredited.[5][page needed] Nonetheless, the view continued to be the prevailing view among Baptists of the Southern United States into the latter 20th century.[6] It is now identified primarily with Landmarkism, which is upheld by the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement, though not exclusively so. 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.[9] 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. Most Baptists continue to believe in secessionism. Read More Read Less