Bart Ehrman: Jesus Did Not Teach Atonement

 

Almost there.  God does not judge at all. We invented the original sin of knowing the good and bad of other people. No atonement is ever needed. Instead, the sacrifice of the Christ was to show the availability of forgiveness and the divine vision quest to experience the pain of being forsaken - which we do to each other and which is part of human existence.  When he said "I thirst" he was sealing the kingdom with his blood/Eucharistic wine.  In John, he drank it. The synoptics are not clear - but they do reflect that a promise was made to not imbibe until after trial was done and salvation had been achieved - which it was when Jesus cried out in despair.  

There is actually real time evidence of God's mercy. NDE survivors relate that Love (who Jesus would have known as Shekinah) holds onto us when we go through our life reviews. We accuse ourselves and experience our failings - God does not do that to us.