One writer noted, “Phillips believed that his task was to protect the churches from the force of Jeffreys’ personality.” The Holy Spirit had moved powerfully through Jeffreys for decades. Was Jeffreys’ appeal now just the power of human personality, as Phillips suggested? It is hard to believe that that was so. The healings that took place under Jeffreys’ ministry could never have been performed by simple human personality or will. In fact, it would have been difficult for Jeffreys’ person ality to command any special attention on its own, as he was known to be “painfully shy” when not preaching from the platform.
Roberts Liardon tells us that the power of the Holy Spirit had moved freely in Jeffreys in the 1920s. Had his power turned into a force of his personality just because of his newfound desire to reform the Elim church? Or, had Phillips simply ceased to recognize the power of an anointed leader because of the mounting administrative responsibilities of such a large organization? We may never know the full answer to those puzzling questions. However, it certainly seems of Jeffreys, and if Jeffreys had released his commitment to the supplementary doctrine of British Israelism and submitted himself to the counsel of some of his peers in other countries, such as Barratt and Pethrus, then this tragic fracture in the body of Christ might never have occurred.
After Jeffreys’ resignation, the Executive Council put a small paragraph in the Elim Evangel stating that Jeffreys had resigned from the Executive Council and was released from the “business side of the work” to be free to conduct his spiritual ministry.70 However, Jeffreys wanted the members of the Elim Alliance to know that the separation had been due to quarrels. He wrote and circulated a pamphlet entitled Why I Resigned from the Elim Movement. In response, the Executive Council published A Reply, which announced some of the opposing views of the Executive Council. Letters of this nature from both sides were sent to the churches for the next six years, demoralizing many of its members.