David Griffiths' Sons of God Approach:

Sons of God are not moved by earthly circumstances but develop a heart and a passion for souls. I was brought up in an old time holiness mission hall. My father had been pastor there, having originally been trained in Swansea by Intercessor Rees Howells. The whole Body used to pray for souls and tear-ridden people regularly came to the front to receive Jesus. This was only the beginning! The Spirit of God got to work on these souls! About a week later, they were there at the front again, confessing sin and opening the door to full sanctification, this being followed by full water baptism. I remember as a child, the great splash that used to occur, and the now sanctified and blood washed child of God came out of the baptismal waters. The Annual Anniversary March of Witness, featuring my mother, is pictured here at Aintree, Liverpool, England.

Compare that with today-- the "just say this prayer" technique, and you will be saved. Not a bit of it! Saying a prayer never got anyone born again, for being born again is by the Spirit and not the head! (See John 3) Repentance brings one to Jesus. Casting our care upon Him brings one to Jesus, and there He is to build us up. Having died to ourselves, we are raised up as Sons in resurrection power. (Romans 6) At this point, we are ready to have the Holy Ghost fall upon us, for as sons, we are partakers of the divine inheritance, joint heirs (equal) with Christ Jesus, and as the Spirit fell upon Him, the same Spirit falls upon us to enable us to fulfill the resurrection call to reach the world with the Gospel. (Acts 1:8) Divinity follows divinity, and here we are as the MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST JESUS on earth with the Holy Ghost leading us from within (Romans 8); the Spirit of God being upon us too (Acts 1:8,19), as well as being seated with HIM in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1 & 2).

Sons of God have missions pulsating from their innermost beings,  and a Sons Church always talks about the Great Commission Call. If this is not your church's calling, leave! This is not a Church! The Church is THE BODY OF CHRIST. Forget the present day unity movements, looking to bring churches together. The Church has never been apart for our unity is with HIM first, and through Him, we are one with each other (Colossians 1; John 17).

Attending Elim Bible College in U.K. from 1988-1992 taught me that the once great Pentecostal denominations in U.K. had turned far away from their original callings with emphasis being on academic knowledge rather than the great spiritual insights of the Pentecostal pioneers like Smith Wigglesworth and George Jeffreys, pictured here on this website. The small amount of spirituality I did witness was in relation to ministering to each other, the fascination being on apparent current moves of God rather than standing fast to the ancient landmark (Ezekiel 44).

The Word declares to remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set; Proverbs 22:28, and indeed the U.K. Assemblies of God Redemption Tidings of 1924 gave clear prophetic warning of taking the road to the Higher Criticism coming out of Germany.

The very university the Assemblies of God had warned about was now the university Elim had placed its college under, and with a Swiss-German Theologian as Director of Studies. The emphasis was now one of higher criticism, the removal of the ancient landmark being one of rebellion and witchcraft (I Samuel 15:23). "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king." Please note this passage of scripture carefully. George Jeffreys, Elim's great founder whose evangelistic healing ministry is legendary in Pentecostal history, proclaimed JESUS the Savior, JESUS the Healer, JESUS the Baptizer in the Holy Ghost and JESUS the SOON COMING KING, and Elim was the place mentioned in Exodus 15:27 after God gave his first covenant promise: "I am the Lord that healeth thee." I am saying now that changing the name from Elim has removed the landmark. Changing the name from BIBLE to Theological is a rejection of the precious Word given to George Jeffreys who loved the Authorized Version of the Bible, a Bible I hardly ever saw being used at Elim Bible College, Jeffreys' belief in healing in the atonement being mocked and disbelieved, a paper by David Petts, the then Principal of Assemblies of God College in the U.K. which questioned the whole doctrine seeming to be readily available and accepted.

THE PROOF: HIGHER CRITICISM IN THE U.K. PENTECOSTAL DENOMINATIONS from the former U.K. Assemblies of God Bible College Principal David Petts calling the fulfilment passage of Matthew 8 as an aside of Matthew and not part of the text. This was widely available and taught at the ELIM COLLEGE too.

EPTA BULLETIN Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association Vol. XII, 1993

A. THE MAJOR NT TEXTS UPON WHICH THE DOCTRINE IS BASED
The major NT texts upon which the doctrine is based are Matthew 8:17 and 1 Peter 2:24. Certain other NT texts are also adduced as evidence for the doctrine.

1.Matthew 8:17
Space forbids detailed discussion of introductory matters with regards to Matthew's gospel. Issues such as authorship, readership, the theological principles upon which Matthew edited the material available to him remain largely unresolved. In a recent article France has provided an excellent summary of the discussion to date and it would be inappropriate to attempt to reproduce it here.5 However, a brief examination of the periscope found in Matthew 8:16-17 reveals that certain introductory issues must be considered before the passage is examined in detail. These include Matthew's use of the OT and his understanding of fulfilment, his purpose in recording the miracles of Jesus. In more general term I shall assume with France the Matthew's purposes were didactic, apologetic and Christological.6

(a) Matthew's Use of the OT - His Understanding of Fulfilment
A pronounced feature of Matthew's Gospel is the frequent appearance of quotations from or allusions to the OT. Of particular interest and significance to the subject of his paper, however, is his use of 'formula quotations' in which we find such classes as "that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled." There are ten such 'formula quotations' all of which appear to function as 'asides' of the evangelist, not as part of his narrative, for if the formula and the quotation were omitted the narrative would not be interrupted. Sadly, the purpose of these quotations remains an unresolved issue, but the key to understanding them must surely lie in the fact that they are fulfilment quotations; they are not merely a set of 'proof-texts'. Rather, as Donaldson has pointed out, Matthew 'combined Christological terms, OT citations, and other typological and narrative elements to form a comprehensive picture of Jesus as the fulfilment of OT hopes and ideals'.8 This view, which sees fulfilment as the key to understanding the Gospel as a whole, is also endorsed by Frankemoelle who claims the pleroo indicates Matthew's 'fundamental theological idea'.9 If this understanding is correct, then the formula quotations must be understood in the light of Matthew's overall emphasis on fulfilment, the purpose of which was, according to France, to enable Jewish Christians to present the Gospel to non-Christian Jews.10 The presentation of Jesus as being in a variety of ways the fulfilment of OT hopes and ideals would clearly be of significance to such people and the formula quotations should probably be seen as just one aspect of such presentation.

God gave clear instruction to refuse the Theology and Christian Ministry B. A. Honors Degree being offered by Manchester University as this would affect the anointing on my ministry. I refused and thank God for the great blessing that has resulted from that decision. One day, I trust that Elim will be back under the ancient landmark when I shall pick up the degree with joy, a certificate bearing the name God had given to George Jeffreys, rather than the name of German higher criticism.

(Pictured at left, David Griffiths praying in India.)