It was in that transition movement in Christian history that Christians first co-opted and then corrupted the Jewish concept of atonement, turning it into something they called “substitutionary atonement.” It was based on the ancient myth rooted in Augustine’s misunderstanding and subsequently on the literalization of that misunderstanding. That transition period was when Christians began to talk about “the fall of man.” This kind of thinking became so dominant that by the time Christianity achieved power in the Roman Empire, substitutionary atonement had become the cornerstone of all
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