Atonement is viewed as self-sacrifice in Christianity, like a soldier giving his life for his country. Christ supposedly gave his life, so people could be saved. But that is not what atonement was elsewhere in the Jewish religion at that time. It was sacrificing an animal to God as a statement of repentance. The animal had no say about it.

This means that atonement in Christianity carries theological errors with it. It involves trickery and duplicity, as meanings change. The sales pitch creates the noblest pretenses, and then the technicalities have opposite meanings. Corruption always carries such duplicity, as it doesn't stand up to truth.

Atonement can never be theologically separated from its roots in demon worship. Because of its debased nature, God said, throughout the Old Testament, that a different method of worship should be used (Isaiah 1:11-20)(Jer 7:22)(Hosea 6:6)(Psalms 40:7, 50:8-15).

Before Abraham's time, sacrifice to the demons (and demon wanabes) was the only religion in existence. The demons required sacrifice as a test of allegiance. In remote areas, like present Ireland and Central America, the demons required people to sacrifice their children to make the corn grow or win their wars. In more civilized areas, lesser sacrifices were allowed, such as sacrificing animals. This is why Abraham assumed God would want him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, as a test of allegiance. There was no other religion known. But God's purpose was to teach people a different religion.

Could anyone really believe that God would glorify the demons and their religion by branding Christ with their ritual? That's satan's dream world, not God's religion. God's purpose was to replace sin with morality, death with life and lies with truth. Nothing related to the religion of the demons does that.

The early Jews modified the religion of the demons slightly using animal sacrifice as a sign of repentance. And still, God said not to use sacrifice, because it was an inappropriate ritual (Isaiah 1:11-20)(Jer 7:22)(Hosea 6:6)(Psalms 40:7, 50:8-15).

Paul then tied Christ's crucifixion to the ritual of sacrifice saying it was a once-and-for-all sacrifice which appeased God and allowed him to forgive sin. The theological corruption is extreme. First, it contradicts Christ, who said, "It is mercy God wants, not sacrifice" (Mat 9:13, 12:7). And it contradicts Christ's purpose, which was to testify to the truth (John 18:37), not offer himself as a sacrifice. It is truth that saves (John 8:32, 34), not psychological witchcraft. Christ taught that morality is based on social justice (Luke 10:30-36), not killing. The purpose of his crucifixion was to show that humans would murder God for doing good deeds and teaching morality.

Attempting to upgrade atonement through self-sacrifice doesn't wash. It says sin is nothing but a disagreement with God, and changing God's mind is the fix. It contradicts all of the truth about sin, as Christ described it, and as anyone who is not brain dead can observe it. Sin is in the mind of the perpetrator. Christ said all forms of evil come from the deep recesses of the mind (Mat 15:19)(Mk 7:21). Sin exists whether there is a God to say so or not, as demonstrated by the fact that it develops to different degrees of severity depending upon time, power and practice.

Atonement also trivializes the saving by replacing the difficult path which Christ taught (Mat 7:14) with an act by someone else. The pretense is that justification is the only concern. Sin is a behavior problem which requires correction of behavior. It takes proper behavior to correct wrong behavior, as Christ taught the subject (Mat 25:31-46). He said only those persons who produce social justice get saved.

There is always a logic to God's work. He created material life so there would be a logic to the process of overcoming sin. Christ taught that logic as human responsibilities to replace the witchcraft which frauds promote.