Bruce Gourley outlines four main views of Baptist origins:

* The modern scholarly consensus that the movement traces its origin to the 17th century via the English Separatists.
* The view that it was an outgrowth of the Anabaptist movement of believer's baptism begun in 1525 on the European continent.
* The perpetuity view, which assumes that the Baptist faith and practice has existed since the time of Christ.
* The successionist view, or "Baptist successionism", which argues