Roy E. Cogdill
Orlando, Florida
It is never pleasant for this writer to have to oppose a brother, much less expose his deceit, trickery, and hypocrisy. It would have been much more pleasant for me to have met brother Gunselman face to face and discussed with him in all directness and kindness our differences and the Philippine situation. However, I found out long ago that your adversaries in preaching the Gospel whether they are brethren in error or outright sectarians will not allow you the privilege of choosing your weapons. So you have to meet them on their own grounds and terms or allow the truth to suffer.
We make no apology for the plainness and directness with which we have dealt with brother Gunselman. We have exposed him for what he chose to be and we will continue to do so as long as he wants to carry on the fight. There is no quarter to give to enemies of the Lord's Truth and this is exactly what we consider this man to be, in spite of the fact that he professes to be a member of the Lord's Church. We have long since learned that a man can flatter Christ and serve the devil. We believe the Elders of the Church at Concord St. here in Orlando should either endorse the tactics and methods of this man or repudiate them. Until they do so, they will stand branded as being the same kind of men as he with the same attitude as he manifests.
We give you in this article a third article in Gunselman's bulletin. We cannot identify the date for he does not date them but it is found on page 5 of what we take to be his last sheet and a dirtier one we have not seen.
"ANTI-ISM"
The "Anti" doctrine will produce a new denomination. It has in the States. It will here. "Antis", of course, teach many things right. BUT THAT CAN BE SAID FOR ANY OTHER DENOMINATION.
"At first, the "antis" will not be so bad. But later they will refuse to fellowship those of us who will not follow their methods for doing things. This is going too far. They are now "erring brethren". When they refuse to fellowship others on the basis of HOW to do the Lord's work, they have become denominational! WATCH for this development. The "high priest" of "anti-ism" has now been to the Philippines. The "anti" followers are sure to know now the fine points of their creed. Watch now for them to begin to cut off their association with us!"
Brother Gunselman not only thinks the Filipino brethren are dishonest but he thinks they are dumb also. Not so! They are wise to him by the hundreds and have no confidence in him. I heard many of them say so I More than that, they did not need anybody to teach them the "fine points" of Bible truth concerning Liberalism of the Gunselman brand for they have had him on the run for several years, as well as the rest of the "liberals" over there. I surmise that the reason that he so "kindly and lovingly" refers to me as "the high priest of anti-ism" is because he felt that the Philippine Islands were his own private diocese and he thinks I trespassed in coming over there at all. He would leave the impression, and you can watch him continue to do so in his writings, that I introduced the trouble over these issues to the Islands. That ranks with all of the rest of the lying he has done. The fight against, "liberalism" in the Philippine Islands has been raging for a number of years and the native preachers such as Agduma, Tibayan and a number of others have fought them to a standstill. In fact, they have the "liberals" on the run and they are running scared and don't forget it!
One of the most ridiculous things appearing in his smear sheet is what he calls "10 COMMANDMENTS FOR ANTIS."
"1. Thou shalt criticize thy brethren day and night. No one shall escape thy fury.
2. Thou shalt claim for thyself a superior knowledge. Thy methods must prevail.
3. Thou shalt make thyself appear as a savior of the church. Man's ideas concerning cooperation are equal to God's.
4. Thou shalt label thy brethren as "liberal" if they accept not thine ideas. A label is often stronger than an argument. (Perhaps this is the reason he uses the term "anti" so freely. He has no arguments so has to use labels altogether. R.E. C.)
5. Thou shalt use subversive methods. Secret meetings, hired preachers, pressures, and double talk are thy domain.
6. Thou shalt talk often and much with thy henchmen. The church must be split asunder.
7. Agitation shall be thy tool. Thou shalt pit brother against brother, father against son for the sake of a point of view which is wholly thine.
8. Thou shalt cease to call thy brethren "brethren". Thou shalt label them as "Mr." or "Sir", as if they were men of the world. 9. Thou shalt publish thine ideas far and wide. Accurate statements, ethical standards, and truth have no place with thee. Sowing discord shalt be thy greatest concern.
10. Money shall be thy power and glory forever and forever. Preachers shalt thou buy and sell as slaves in the market place. Making merchandise of the Gospel of Christ shall not bother thee. "
You can read these and know that brother Gunselman loves the people he calls "antis" so freely very dearly. I have never seen more misrepresentation or glorying and lying against the truth than he does in his slander sheet. But anybody that has enough gumption to understand anything can see that he is guilty in what he has written of this code of conduct himself at almost every point. "Therefore thou are inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doeth the same things" (Rom. 2: 1).
We have never known a man to condemn himself and his cause with such completeness.
He announces in this last article that when we refuse to fellowship the "liberals" that will mean that we have become a "denomination." According to that they have been a denomination for years, for they quit fellowshipping us long ago. They have shown themselves to be sectarian in spirit. They have accepted human authority and brought "profane" things into, the work and worship of God. They have divided the churches all over the world by their forcing into the work and worship of the churches those things which, though they say are matters of expediency or human judgment, are offensive to the conscience of brethren as sincere as they ever were. They have built human organizations or societies to do the work of the Lord's church and hence have corrupted the organization of the Lord's Church. They have perverted the function of the church for which Christ died by putting it into business" of every kind-boarding house, secular education, farming, live stock raising, recreation, banqueting and partying, etc. And they are now seeking unity with the sectarian bodies or holding conferences with them to that end. They have among them those who have departed doctrinally who claim to have the direct power of the Holy Spirit operating within them personally and that they therefore are able to speak in tongues and even cast out devils. How far does a group have to go to become a denomination?
But to feed our brother out of his own spoon and show that human sophistry can serve one cause as well as another, we give him what we have named:
"The Devil's Beatitudes for Liberals"
1. Blessed art thou when thou dost never condemn or criticize nor even attempt to restore thy brethren when they are overtaken with error for such would be to listen to the Lord Jesus, which I forbid thee to do.
2. Blessed art thou when thou shalt place thy trust in thy own understanding and walk in thy own wisdom even if it offends the conscience of a brother and divides the church.
3. Blessed art thou when thou dost misrepresent thy brethren when they condemn thy departures from the truth so 'their opposition will be made more ineffective and weakness of thy cause will not be apparent.
4. Blessed art thou when thou dost not feel any concern for the churches even if they depart from the faith for error among brethren and unfaithfulness and apostasy are all to be covered by the great blanket of brotherly love.
5. Blessed art thou when thou dost label thy brethren as "antis", "trouble makers", "highpriests", "church splitters", and by other epithets when they oppose thy human inventions and institutions for such epithets are stronger than thy arguments and thy ways are higher than God's ways even as the heavens above the earth.
6. Blessed art thou when thou canst not give chapter and verse for thy doctrines and practice for it is wiser for thy cause to cast aspersion upon those that oppose thee personally and destroy regard for them that oppose thee.
7. Blessed art thou when thou dost make evasion and avoidance of confrontation thy rule rather than entering into any effort to sustain thy cause by any means except innuendo, slander, deceit which thou shalt circulate from the inner sanctuary of thine own castle with all manner of sophistry and propaganda.
8. Blessed art thou when thou dost allow the church to divide and fellowship with your brethren to be destroyed before any willingness to surrender or sacrifice anything which in thine own wisdom and judgment is an expediency.
9. Blessed art thou when thy innovations and human institutions create trouble and thy brethren in all sincerity cannot violate their consciences by having fellowship in them and when thou dost allow them to be alienated before making any concession "for conscience sake."
10. Blessed art thou when thou art wilung to lie about those who disagree with thee and through thy propaganda agencies smear them, forgetting all concern for their souls and making no effort to point out that about which thou believest them to be in error for slander and misrepresentation shall serve thy purpose better than a forthright defense of thy teachings and practice.
11. Blessed art thou when as the Pharisees of old thou dost count thyself only to be righteous and set all others at nought for in such self-deception and self-righteou8ness thou shalt find great spiritual strength and peace of mind.
12. Blessed art thou when thou dost not let thyself become concerned about learning whether thou are right or wrong about a matter but are ruled by a partisan spirit and refuse to discuss and study any issue for surely no one knows as much truth as thee and even if thou 8houldst learn that thou art wrong, thou couldst not afford to be an 64 anti" or a "hireling" and sacrifice the meager support thou d08t receive for the great amount of earthly reward thou wouldst receive for preaching "anti-i8nl" even if it is truth.
Brother Gunselman is a great one to be talking about buying and selling preachers and brethren preaching for hire. There are probably not any half a dozen preachers in the Philippines who oppose his liberalism who all together receive as much support as does he for the error he preaches. He should be ashamed of himself for impugning motives and judging the sincerity of hearts as though he were God Almighty!
He resorts to the same old time-worn deceitfulness of accusing us of opposing methods! Brother Gunselman, if you were honest about the matter, and knew anything about what we contend for (and you could have learned if you had come and listened), you would know that the ground of our opposition to what you are doing is not the use of "methods" but the forming of human institutions which are unauthorized in the word of God and which, when you build them must "use methods to do their work. Shall we let the Lord's organizations (the local church) use whatever methods are scriptural and expedient to do its own work, or shall we set up human institutions and organizations to use "methods" to do the work of the work of the church instead? This is the issue and if you do not know it and will not honestly face up to it, you are unworthy to discuss it with anybody.
TRUTH MAGAZINE XIV; 48, pp. 6-8
October 15, 1970
