"When these become members of the Community of Israel according to all these rules, they shall establish the spirit of holiness according to everlasting truth. They shall atone for guilty rebellion and for the sins of unfaithfulness that they may obtain loving-kindness for the Land without the flesh of holocausts and the fat of sacrifice. And prayer rightly offered shall be as an acceptable fragrance of righteousness, and perfection of way as a delectable free-will offering." (The Community Rule, Dead Sea Scrolls)
I would like to establish one critical point before I go any further with this topic. GOD DOES NOT DEAL IN INNOCENT BLOODSHED. Therefore, what I have to say will be very shocking to most of you who read this section.
God did not institute the sacrificial system that we read about in the Old Testament. God is not a hypocrite. He would not tell the children of Israel to do the very same thing that the fallen angels taught to mankind and were condemned for, and why the Flood was sent in the first place (click here for more information). They taught witchcraft and physical warfare to mankind to openly rebel against God and to destroy His people. This was the beginning of Satanism, which includes vampirism (the drinking of blood), animal and human sacrifice, and cannibalism, which is symbolically followed in the Church's communion rituals.
Therefore, anyone who deals in blood, real or symbolic, is not kosher and is therefore unclean, because the life is in the blood. Blood sacrifices are defilement -- period, end of story, for why would God create this world only to have us sacrifice one another and innocent animals in His name for our evil deeds? Why would God institute the laws of keeping kosher in the home (forbidding the Jews to eat anything with blood and other things), which includes soaking and salting meat so that no blood remains, only to command us to handle dead animals and to sprinkle their blood upon His altar? Why is it not kosher to eat raw animals because the life is in the blood, and also all the diseases, and yet command us to handle raw animals and their blood in sacrifices to Him and call that holiness and godliness? Is this not disgusting? Is this not hypocrisy? Is this the face of your Lord?
When I read the Old Testament and see what was considered to be godliness and holiness, I shudder. When I hear about what was considered the atonement for sin on Yom Kippur during the Temple Days, I almost become physically ill (click here for an extremely enlightening history of the High Holy Days in Jerusalem). When I read about Jesus' crucifixion and how Paul taught that this was the atonement for mankind, and that we as believers are washed by the blood of Christ, I want to run screaming into a purification pool and scrub myself until my flesh is raw. Blood baths are not of the Lord and neither is propitiation of sin, becoming pure by defiling another living being, animal or human.
Scapegoating is a crime, a serious sin, because it means that you have not taken responsibility for your own mistakes and instead are instilling your evil spirits into another living thing and defiling it. This is not true repentance. This is not true atonement. This is refusing to be accountable for your own actions and the consequences are everlasting. This is the abomination that the Church is based on, that Jesus was the scapegoat for our sins, and comes straight from the pit of hell. During the Temple Days, which is described in that link above, when the Jews performed animal sacrifice, they sacrificed one to the Lord and one to Azazyel, who is Satan as described in Enoch's "Book of the Origin of Good and Evil" :
"Thou hast seen what Azazyel has done, how he has taught every species of iniquity upon earth, and has disclosed to the world all the secret things which are done in heaven." (Enoch 9:5)
"Again the Lord said to Raphael, 'Bind Azazyel hand and foot; cast him into darkness; and opening the desert which is in Dudael, cast him in there." (Enoch 10:6)
"All the earth has been corrupted by the effects of the teaching of Azazyel. To him therefore ascribe the whole crime." (Enoch 10:12)
"Then Enoch, passing on, said to Azazyel, 'Thou shalt not obtain peace. A great sentence has gone forth against thee. He shall bind thee; neither shall relief, mercy, and supplication be thine, on account of the oppression which thou hast taught; and on account of every act of blasphemy, tyranny and sin, which thou hast discovered to the children of men.'" (Enoch 13:1-3)