Atonement: The process by which people remove obstacles to their reconciliation with God. A recurring theme in the history of religion and theology. - Encyclopedia Britannica

Atonement is a fitting subject for Lent. The word we use to talk about what Jesus achieved with his death. The way the church explained it for centuries involves a law court and a merciful but just God who punishes his son in our place, by having him killed in the most bloody, and painful means on the planet. Today with the heightened awareness of domestic violence and of the violent evils perpetrated in the past in Jesus name, it doesn't seem to be "good news", it might seem like God is a monster.

Would a monster have created the beauty we see in nature and given the gift of Life to everything? No. Why did God create us? God wanted genuine sentient beings, children to love and keep Him company through eternity. What intelligent being would value people forced to love them? So he had to give us free will, for free will to exist there had to be a choice between good and evil, so evil had to exist. But could a pure Holy God be unjust and let evil go unpunished? The universe runs on a set of universal laws built into the very fabric of the reality He created, a type of "deep magic". Thus 'Karma' (the law of sowing and reaping), what you project and put out into the world comes back to you; put out good, you receive good. If you commit an evil act, that evil will hunt you down and eventually you will pay for it.

The entire 10 Commandments are designed to do 2 things, either keep you from causing pain to others or to bless and prosper you. It's what God wants for us, it's what he always wanted for us! The problem is humans are so easily corrupted that not one of us is without sin. We can't meet God's standards!

While we can get into enough trouble all on our own, we also have an enemy, deceiving, pulling and pushing us toward evil as often as he can. God realized there had to be a way to atone, a way to wipe the slate clean and try again. So he created a way to achieve atonement, to put things right while satisfying Karma. The burnt offerings and scapegoat system was a temporary fix, we needed more. So Jesus came and CHOSE to be an ULTIMATE SACRIFICE - HE VOLUNTEERED. Just as Aslan volunteered to die for Edmund in 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe'.

As for the second issue, the evils prepretrated in Jesus name. I watched an interview recently with a Messianic Jew who answered this question better than I have ever heard it answered before. I will put the interview at Lunch (Sext).