ANGELS ON ASSIGNMENT

Whereas two of the late Pastor Buck's visitors identify themselves as Michael and Gabriel, two others, not named in the Bible, are identified as Chrioni and Cyprion.

1. "He [Gabriel] introduced me to the second angel whose name as Chrioni! That's a peculiar name. I never heard that" (40).
2. "Gabriel, Chrioni, and a ministering angel name Cyprion … said, 'We want you to join in worship with us … '" (195).

Whereas some of Pastor Buck's descriptions tally with the Bible, he clearly goes beyond it.

1. "No two of them look alike! They are different sizes, have different hairstyles, and completely different appearances. Chrioni has a hairdo much like many men have today, and he looks about 25 years old. I do not know what he would weigh in earthly pounds, by my guess would be close to 400 pounds. He is huge, seven or more feet in height, and often wears a brown pull-over shirt and is casually, but neatly dressed in loose-fitting brown trousers. His shirt laces at the top with what looks like a shoelace. Gabriel often appears in a shimmering white tunic with a radiant gold belt about five inches wide, white trousers and highly polished, bronze-colored shoes. His hair is the color of gold!" (45).
2. "I noticed Michael was dressed somewhat like Gabriel. His white tunic had a type of elegant gold embroidery on it, and he wore a wide, gold belt. He wore a type of sandal, and his feet were the color of someone with a deep tan… His hair is light, almost flaxen. He appears to be about 25 years old… The other warring angles wore a type of brown tunic, or shirt, tied at the neck with what appeared to be a shoelace. This was worn over very loose trousers" (169).

Whereas some of Pastor Buck's descriptions tally with biblical roles, his reporting goes far beyond the Bible.

1. The angels carry on lengthy conversations with Pastor Buck—"some fifty hours of angelic conversations" with "sixteen separate visitations" (13, 15) in two years. Within a few more months the number of visitations had come to twenty-three (statement at Full Gospel meeting, Boise, Idaho, September 17, 1979). In the Bible angel visits are quite rare and the words are few.
2. The angels bring messages from God for the world. "Each time the angels have come they have brought a message from God for the world" (15). Pastor Buck's book contains many of these "inspiring messages" (37), for example a whole chapter of messages in sermonic form called "God's Priorities" (chapter VI). In the Scriptures, however, the angels only announce extraordinary events (see IV.B.), and interpret divine visions (IV.C.). They do not give lengthy messages.
3. The angels "… have orders to bring people to a point of either accepting or rejecting Jesus" (33). The Bible nowhere suggests such a role for angels.
4. Gabriel on one occasion "drew a rough sketch of a picture frame," a photograph of which Pastor Buck claimed is in the book (43), to show that God's promises are complete (43); on another occasion Gabriel showed Pastor Buck how to draw a "diagram which explains the importance and function of the atonement" (110-111; diagram on 110). Again, there is no suggestion in the Scriptures of angels, much less Gabriel, performing such roles.
5. The angels receive messages from the Holy Spirit and are monitored by Him. They "were constantly picking up messages from the Holy Spirit. Often when they would pick up reports, they would laugh and become extremely happy" (44). Again, "Michael and the three captains ['warring angels'] who were with him were receiving messages from the Holy Spirit, as he monitored all their activities" (167). There is nothing in the Bible to suggest any such relation between the Holy Spirit and angels—surely not that of receiving messages from and being monitored by Him.
6. The angels are described as having pushed down the walls of Jericho. "Chrioni told me the angels took their positions on top of those walls, waiting for the shout… When they [ the angels] heard the shout, every angel who was there pushed with all him might and strength, and the great big thick walls went DOWN into the ground… This was an act of the angels" (179). Obviously Pastor Buck is adding to the biblical record, but claiming it as true because Chrioni told him so. (Also earlier Pastor Buck reported, in connection with the deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh and his charioteers: "We [Chrioni speaking] threw lightning bolts at them! We pulled the wheels off their carts!" [47].)
7. The angels are described as "unlimited in power" (183). According to the Scripture only God is omnipotent.
8. Gabriel gives detailed information to Pastor Buck about a trip to the Philippines: "The week before I was to leave for the Philippines, the angel Gabriel met me, spoke with me about the work… He gave me the names of the people to whom he had been ministering, that he said I would meet…" (147). "Gabriel…met me in my office to give me instructions… He said my message would be from the 96th chapter of Psalms…" (150). All such detailed instruction is contrary to the biblical picture of Gabriel who is mentioned only as interpreting Daniel's visions (Daniel 8 and 9) and announcing events related to the Incarnation (Luke 1).

Although Pastor Buck claimed that the angels only gave scriptural information (e.g., "biblical facts … by angelic messengers" [133]), as a matter of fact they frequently gave more than the Bible contains.

"Part of the special work God is doing is a broader revelation of himself through the messages brought by angelic visitation" (9--Preface: "A Word from the Wife of Roland Buck"). "Revelations (note the plural) are being brought forth … fresh truths from God's Word" (13-14). "After these glorious revelations, difficult truths become simple" (38).

Examples of additional information ("broader revelation," "fresh truths," etc.) have already been indirectly noted under the headings of (Test I) non-biblical names, (Test II) extra-biblical description, and (Test III) beyond biblical activities. A few additional examples may now be noted.

1. "One of the most impressive things the angels told me was that God always has a back-up plan. God says his work will get done even if he has to call in someone else to do it…" (23). Where in the Scriptures is there any suggestion of this? What happens to God's sovereignty, God's foreknowledge, if he acts in such fashion? Omniscience needs no "back-up plan."
2. Concerning the shipwreck of Paul (Acts 27) and the saving of the whole crew, "the angel visitor [to Pastor Buck] said that he had led a host of angels in at that time to make sure each person got to shore. Each one of the 276 who were saved had a big angel watching over them!" (27). The Bible gives no such information. Pastor Buck adds, gratuitously, that his own angelic visitor "was the angel who was with Zacharias, with Paul at the shipwreck, with Moses to scatter the enemies, and with Joshua" (29). The Bible says none of this: in fact the angel with Zacharias was said to be Gabriel (Luke 1:19), but not named in relation to Paul, Moses, and Joshua. Are we now to accept pastor Buck's "revelation" that goes beyond, perhaps even contradicts, Scripture?
3. "One day Gabriel said that these heavenly beings (angels) were on every hill, every tree, and even in the holes of the ground, searching out men and women who were trying to hide from God" (79). Where do the Scriptures give such a picture of angelic presence and pursuit of those running from God?
4. The angel said it was more important to be like Jesus in meeting the area of a person's need than to be witnessing to people about salvation" (137). How does this correspond with the biblical priority as set forth, for example, in Mt. 28:19, Acts 1:8, II Tim. 4:1-5? Does the angel have an insight beyond Scripture?
5. "Michael said … If you want to read about what is coming, it is found in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, verses seven through ten." Many Bible students see in these verses (about Michael and his angels defeating Satan and his angels and casting them down) a reference to the prior fall of Satan through Christ's death and resurrection, thus not a future event. But if this is Michael's unmistakable word to Pastor Buck—this additional information—then the issue must be considered resolved. No longer will Bible scholars have to debate: Gabriel has spoken!

Pastor Buck's angels frequently went beyond the gospel in the sense of proclaiming as "truths" things more than or other than Scriptural teaching. This doubtless has become apparent in many of the matters discussed under Tests I through IV. This will be noted along with additional examples.

1. The angel (unnamed) told Pastor Buck that "God's plan is a family plan. All of the beautiful ties of home and family are eternal…" (22). The Bible nowhere even hints at such eternal family ties. In regard to "rebellious children," "I want them to know when they obey me, there is not one thing from the past against them on their record up in heaven" (25). Also note the words: "… our circle up there is going to be unbroken because God is working to bring whole families to himself" (143). God undoubtedly is so working, but there is no Scriptural assurance that all will be there.
2. The angel said: "You have accepted the teaching that Jesus is the door… but God wants you to know that you are also a door … a door to Christ, and he is the door to God." (32). *Pastor Buck's angel by his own statement goes beyond Scripture and then makes an un-Scriptural proclamation! According to the New Testament, Christ alone is the door (john 10:1-9); all must enter by him. In the angel's statement there is a dangerous shift of focus from Christ to the individual and his authority. Note what follows: "… we are the human doors and … He wants us to take the same kind of authority that these angels are taking and not listen to anyone's objections when they come to us" (32). If we are "a door," why not then the Catholic teaching that Mary is the gate of heaven and the canonized saints doors also? [*In the original manuscript of the book submitted to Professor Walter Martin this sentence read: "… you are also the door, the door to Christ, and he is the door to God." This original statement was still more disturbing, but even with the modification it remains un-scriptural and misleading.]
3. We earlier noted Pastor Buck's statement: "They have orders to bring people to a point of either accepting or rejecting Jesus." Then he immediately adds: "If they refuse, the angels start the cycle over again, and again, and again as directed by the Spirit" (35). This statement is thrice unbiblical: first, as noted there is no biblical teaching that angels are the agents in bringing people to salvation; second, the Scriptures do not hold out that for all who refuse "the cycle" is started over again (it might not be so started: Heb. 12:25—"See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven"); third, it is contrary to Scripture to say that the angels are directed by the Holy Spirit.
4. "One thing God told me was … opposite to my theology … I have preached that once you quit breathing, if you are not saved, and do now know God, you have missed heaven. God said that was not necessarily so. He said that there is a spot where the spirit of mankind may linger for a little time before going on to their permanent abode. Some of them have approached the gates of hell, have even looked in, or have been able to look into heaven, and yet have come back" (59). Where in the Bible is this taught? To be sure, Pastor Buck has this information presumably from an even higher authority than Gabriel or Michael, namely, God himself, but where is such a teaching found in God's Word? It dangerously points in the direction of a second chance after death whereas according to scripture: "… it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment" (Heb. 9:27). God also showed Pastor Buck that this spot is "something like a corridor or a tunnel between life and death, a waiting room from which individuals enter into the final place," and "God told me that a person who dies and comes back has returned from this corridor" (59). All this about "a waiting room," returning from a "corridor" is totally foreign to Scripture and reminiscent of occult phenomena.
5. Gabriel shows Pastor Buck a panorama of Christ's return from earth to heaven: "Then I saw Jesus bowed down, with his priestly garments torn and splattered with mud, filthy with the rot and stench of the world. He came with his shoulders bowed, into the presence of God … I saw him coming from the darkness of the pit of hell, bearing the sins of the whole world" (96). This is contrary to the Scriptures which show Christ, having borne the sin and filth of mankind at the cross, rising triumphantly from the grave and thereafter ascending gloriously to the Father.
6. Gabriel says of Christ: "He has turned sin into cinders. He has blotted out the records …" (107). Christ, to be sure, overcame sin, and we are purged by his blood, but sin does remain in our lives. Compare Gabriel's optimistic words with those of Scripture: "In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood" (Heb. 12:14). Gabriel adds: "… you will never find the message of pardon in the New Testament. There is no need for pardon: IT HAS BEEN DONE!" (108). Truly "it has been done" in the sense that Christ has made atonement, therefore the message of pardon is now possible and thus is abundantly found in the New Testament, e.g., "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness [remission, pardon] of your sins…" (Acts 2:3): "… every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins" (Acts 10:43). See also Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14, and elsewhere. This "Gabriel" somehow is misinformed about the New Testament teaching.
7. "God explained to me that rebellion and idolatry are the two things that will take man out from under the covering [the Atonement]" (120). This message "You are Covered"—"a part of every angelic visitation" (111)—even though God is said to be the direct speaker, is contradicted by the further statement: "Our sins are not only covered, but they are removed as far as the east is from the west" (115). How can rebellion and idolatry—sins against God—remove the believer from the covering when the covering has already removed our sins? Actually, Pastor Buck is proclaiming (presumably under the authority of God and Gabriel) an unbiblical doctrine. This becomes an "other" gospel than the Good News of total covering (cf. Also the dangerous statement: "there is also an edge beyond which the covering does not reach" [119]).
8. "Christ … didn't taste physical death for us, because we still have to die…" (77). Even though this is said to be one of Gabriel's messages, it is totally unscriptural. "But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for every one" (Heb.2:9). Christ experienced death both physical and spiritual. To be sure we still have to die, but the sting of death and the grave have been removed (I Cor. 15:54-55—"Death is swallowed up in victory. O death where is thy victory, O death where is thy sting?").
9. "During the tribulation, the days will be horrible because all of the fallen angels will be on the earth" (168). These words, in the context of some of Michael's messages to Pastor Buck, have no scriptural validity. According to II Peter 2:4, "If God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment" and Jude 6: …angels who did not keep their own dominion but abandoned their proper abode he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day" (New American Standard Bible). Pastor Buck's words, presumably with angelic sanction, afford a picture of "the Tribulation" that—however bad it may be—does not include all of the fallen angels on earth.
   

An angel may, therefore, be a "deceitful spirit." Is it possible that Pastor Buck has been "giving heed to deceitful [or 'misleading'] spirits" and thus "departing ['falling away'] from the faith"? "Deceitful spirits" are not to be thought of as obvious spirits of evil such as tempt to disobedience or immorality. "Deceitful spirits" are those who outwardly are of God, even presume to declare his truth and his will, but so subtly distort the message that the hearer scarcely knows what is happening until he has fallen away.

The matter of deceit, in a different context, could be involved in another experience reported by Pastor Buck. He claimed to have brought a paper back from "God's Throne Room," on which God himself had written down 120 events soon to happen (52). Pastor Buck laid it on his study desk but by morning the paper had turned to ashes so that no one could read it. Pastor Buck said that several pastors who came to see this phenomenon picked up some of the ashes only to have them "evaporate right off their hands as they held them. In two-and-a-half weeks there was not even one speck of dust left!" (60). Such a story (incidentally, not unlike that of Joseph Smith and the "Golden Plates" in Mormonism) hardly rings with credibility. Could this not be another example of "deceitful spirits" at work?

The danger of presumed additional revelation being given through angelic visitation. It has been noted in some detail that Pastor Buck's angelic visitors are given extra-biblical description; some have names not mentioned in the Bible; they often perform roles beyond the Bible; and in many cases, they proclaim an "other" gospel. All this means, in varying degree, that revealed truth in the Bible is by no means definitive or normative. Pastor Buck's early claim, "I have not added to, or taken away from the Word of God" (13) simply cannot be sustained. The angels seem little concerned about the Scriptures, many times going beyond the Word of God. Pastor Buck at one point says: "It might be of interest to you to know that during the two to four hours they have stayed each time they have come, there has not been one verse of Scripture quoted" (15). This statement only reinforces our questioning of the angels' messages (despite Pastor Buck's further word that "not once did they leave without giving me Bible references where the message could be found" [157]). For by Pastor Buck's own admission "broader revelation" and "fresh truths" are being given by the angels in our day.

All of this is a very serious matter. Since the angelic visitors are presumed to speak infallibly ("who would doubt angels?"), then through them we have infallible truth in addition to Scripture. Pastor Buck's messages from angels have at least equal importance with the Scriptures—perhaps more importance since they are allegedly direct from heaven and quite contemporary. From now on therefore we need to read both the Bible and Angels on Assignment to have the full truth! All this smacks too much of Joseph Smith and his revelations [is it pure coincidence that the name of Smith's angel Moroni and Buck's angel Chrioni even sound alike?] which form a separate and even more authoritative volume than the Bible. It makes us want to sound forth a loud alarm of warning: stop before it is too late!

The possibility of a "religion of the angels" being developed. One of the greatest dangers in Pastor Buck's book, and the recounting of his experiences, is in the growth of a religion, or cult, focusing on angels. There is far more growth of a religion, or cult, focusing on angels. There is far more mention in his book of angels than of Christ and the Holy Spirit: angels are the active agents in all that transpires. It has been noted that the angels are said to be directly involved in bringing people to salvation; the Holy Spirit (who, according to Scriptures, is Himself the immediate agent) is only in the background "monitoring" their activities. Christ scarcely figures as a living person. Gabriel does say: "Do not seek angels. Seek Jesus!" (16), and reference is made to Christ's atonement, but the sense of his being active, alive, and present is almost totally missing. Angels dominate everything. It becomes far more interesting to discover new things about them, new truths from them, even to delight in their visits, than to keep one's focus on Christ. Paul warns, as we have earlier noted, about the person who, in relation to angels, "goes into great detail about what he has seen and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head…" It is to be feared that Pastor Buck has come close to fitting this picture. If so, we would earnestly call his promoters and followers back before it is too late. Otherwise, we may well be in the first stages of the development of a new cult, the cult, or religion, of angels.

In the wake of Pastor Buck's sudden death (November 6, 1979) we may anticipate even more "revelations" based upon his lectures and tapes in an attempt to validate Angels on Assignment. The Christian public should be wary of any such extra-biblical utterances and test them by the Word of God.