Here we will analyze the contents of a short YouTube clip headlined “JESUS LOVES YOU SO MUCH, HE WOULD RATHER DIE THAN LIVE WITHOUT YOU” (and yes, it’s all in caps on YouTube).  This is by a preacher named Yankee Arnold.  

I’ll give the contents of this short clip and analyze it in segments (the clip seems to pick up in the middle of a sentence- I will start with the first full sentence of the clip).

Yankee Arnold says: “Remember this, when Christ died 2,000 years ago, all of your sins were in the future.  He died for you before you were born.  He paid for your sins before you ever committed any of them.  He paid for your sins in advance- so that whenever you accept that payment He made for all of your sins, not some of them, all of them- then I have a payment for all my sins.”

This man is basically stating that you have a free pass to sin to your heart’s content if you just accept that Christ paid for all of your sins before you were even born.  Yet he is only stating boldly what a lot of other preachers just say in a less direct way.  

Once you remove the conditional nature of Christ’s atonement (which the Bible clearly teaches), and also fail to stress those conditions which cement God’s authority and uphold His Law, then Christ’s grace is presented as a license to sin.  This is demonic to the core.  There is no actual forgiveness for one who is continuing to serve the devil.  

Speaking of Christ’s atonement in the way Yankee Arnold is doing here also disregards the examples and principles put forth regarding atonement in the Bible.  His atonement was made in the context of making people faithful subjects of His kingdom.  Christ is a King who died with the intent of winning people back to Himself out of the realm of the devil which is marked by servitude to sin.  He only forgives in the context of one cooperating with that intention.  

Colossians 1:13-14: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins…”

John 8:34-39: “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father.  Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.”

It is obvious that Jesus told physical descendants of Abraham that they are not of the spiritual seed of Abraham due to the incompatibility of their works with Abraham’s works.  Abraham’s faith was marked by departure from sin and submission to God’s authority- and this was demonstrated by his works.

Genesis 26:5 (God is speaking to Abraham’s son Isaac): “Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

There are multitudes who will go to hell even though Jesus died for them- including many who believed that He died for all of their sins which did not actually submit to His Lordship.

Luke 6:46-49: “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”

2 Timothy 2:19 says: “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.  And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity (unrighteousness).”

Yankee Arnold continues: “There is no sin that could condemn me to hell.”

Beware of liars like this who echo the logic of the serpent in the Garden when he told Eve “ye shall not surely die…” in relation to not submitting to God’s Word and rather taking what He had forbidden her.

2 Peter 2:1-3: “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.  And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”

Yankee Arnold is surely no John the Baptist.  John the Baptist is the forerunner to Christ- while Yankee Arnold and those like him are the anti-John the Baptists.

John the Baptist warned in Luke 3:9: “And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

Yankee Arnold further continues: “I’m going to heaven, not because I’m good, but because God loved me so much, He would rather die than live without me.”

Imagine a person swindling you out of everything you own who believes they are going to heaven because Christ died for them.  There are indeed multitudes who lie, cheat, and steal while believing that God accepts them as they are because Christ died for them.  

This is a mockery of Christ’s blood which turns His grace into a license for sin.  This license is invalid.  

Jude 3-7: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.  For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation (my note- ordained or appointed to condemnation in the Old Testament- as we’re about to see), ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.  I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.  And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.  Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

(Now, continuing to speak while crying) Yankee Arnold emphasizes: “He loved you so much, He’d rather die than live without you.”

This is sentimentality which is also really sick emotionalism in its context.  

For one, God does not need you nor I nor anyone else.  To imply that He does need any person is implying that He is an emotionally dependent weakling.  Reducing Him to this is both lying and idolatry.  

Also, God does not value you nor I nor anyone else above truth.  Lucifer was closer to God than any person on earth now- yet Lucifer rebelled and was cast out from before God for his rebellion along with the angels who gave heed to him.  Moreover, God created the eternal fire of hell for the devil and his angels.  He has also made it clear that he will send people there who persist in following the devil by doing wickedness.  God will send these to hell spite of the atonement which Christ made for them on the cross.  He even emphasized this truth so clearly in the Book of Revelation, and even more particularly in the last two chapters of Revelation, that anyone who reads Revelation would have to be a liar to not acknowledge this.  It is clear enough beforehand in the Bible as well.

The clip finishes with Yankee Arnold saying: “And that’s why He paid your sin debt.  And all He wanted you to do is the only thing you can do- is when you believe that He did it for you.”

Another feel-good, emotion-driven, blatant lie.   

God has a deep controversy with sinners which He is not going to relent from until they turn from sin to be under His authority.  

Revelation 14:6-7:  “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”

You must repent and do works fitting for repentance.  

Repentance is an utter change of mind about sin resulting in a change of actions; a change from commitment to the principle and practice of pleasing self to the principle and practice of pleasing God (in accordance with what He commands for Christians in the Bible).  

Yankee Arnold speaks as if God couldn’t bear it if He had to live without you.  In the Bible however, God rather says that He would rather you turned and walked in righteousness before Him instead of being assigned to the eternal condemnation which He has guaranteed for unrepentant sinners.

Ezekiel 18:30-32 (this also further proves that repentance is indeed a turning from sin to God): “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God.  Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.  Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?  For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.”

Consider also how Jesus in the Gospels referenced the Ninevites in the Book of Jonah as an example of exercising the repentance which is required to properly believe in Him and to be adequately ready to meet Him on Judgment Day.

The false grace preachers like Yankee Arnold love to quote Ephesians 2:8-9 (independent of its context): “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”  

They won’t say that the man who wrote this also, by his own testimony, preached a gospel which is utterly at odds with the gospel they preach.

Acts 26:19-21 (the Apostle Paul is testifying before King Agrippa): “Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.  For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me.”

Paul also testified the following in writing to authentic Christian churches: 

Romans 6:19-21: “I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity (that is, lawless deed unto lawless deed); even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?  for the end of those things is death.”

1 Corinthians 9:24-27: “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?  So run, that ye may obtain.  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.  Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” 

Ephesians 5:5-6: “For this ye know, that no whoremonger (that is, one who is sexually immoral in any way), nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.” 

Christ offered up Himself to satisfy the necessary legal requirements in order to deliver us from both sin’s guilt and power.  God expects us to repent, walk in truth under Christ’s authority (the authority of His Word), and continue therein until the end.  Those who do not do so will be found as Christ’s enemies who are incompatible with His kingdom and will be cast into hell as workers of lawlessness.  The redemption He purchased by His blood will be null and void in regard to these on an individual basis.

As much as it is right to beware of preachers like Yankee Arnold and warn others of their deceit, such preachers are among the easiest deceivers to spot for what they are.  The most dangerous ones are the ones who speak sound doctrine yet live subtly in sin (these are the actual wolves in sheep’s clothing whom that description fully applies to in terms of how it is used in the Bible).  

It is even more common for preachers and churches to say in their doctrinal statement that people must repent in order to be cleansed by Christ’s blood, while also stating that repentance is turning from sin, and yet they ultimately teach (or at least practically act like) anyone who has been converted to Christ will ultimately be saved in the end no matter what.  Though many such are blatant Calvinists, many others are only practical Calvinists.  Since they don’t heed the whole counsel of the Bible, they don’t actually think that their own diligent cooperation to follow Jesus in walking in truth on the narrow way to eternal life until the end is really necessary.  

That alone qualifies them as being captives to deception.  

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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