If it was OK for Jesus to appear to have doubts, by asking why he had been forsaken, doesn't that make it all right for the rest of us to have doubts?

First, I think it is very honest and very human to have doubts. And while I can't speak for God, I think he knows we do, and that s/he smiles with approval when we either work through them, or accept that perhaps we'll always have them. Can a person say honestly that they've never had doubts about whether they could be (or had been) an adequate father or mother? And yet, many do the best that they can.

In the garden, Jesus asked that the "cup" (the cross that he had foreseen) be taken from him; but if not, then God's will be done.

I don't disapprove if Jesus had doubts, but I don't see the asking why he had been forsaken as a doubt. Being in the presence of God the Father throughout eternity, and then for 3 days (figurative? literal?) being separated from that presence, must have been a torture we could not begin to imagine.

Did the spirit of God leave him? Was he only human at that point?

Or is it all figurative? I cannot know for sure.

But strictly from the narratives, I don't think we can infer that Jesus was asking why God had allowed him to be put to death. I think he fully expected it, and walked willingly toward that from the beginnings of his ministry.

Again, on our doubts - I frequently talk about my doubts to God. I can't really say that I get verbal answers, but I certainly don't "feel" rejected and condemned.

In the church where I started my ministerial preparation, in San Diego, my home church pastor often commented that the people who came most often to the altar for prayer were not (as some might suppose) the most sinful and burdened and doubtful. No, they were often the ones who were closest to the Lord.

I think that "just as I am" means more to God than tears and gifts.

Carl, Amen to that entire post!

That's actually a direct quote from Psalm 22:1.

There is a tradition of some sort that goes with this, I heard somewhere on the tip of my ear that it was said at certain times... but I really can't recall. I'd have to do some looking.

Ah, found it, with a little extra info. [quote]According to the Jewish Study Bible, this psalm of David is read on Purim and is viewed by Jewish tradition as David lamenting over the future exile of his people in the book of Esther.[7] Christian interpreters see the 22nd Psalm as looking forward to the Messiah, who would fulfill its words by “Suffering” for the sins of the people in accordance with Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and Daniel 9:26.[/quote] http://www.truthnet.org/TheMessiah/12_Messiah_Objections_Psalms_2_22/

Yes, indeed!
I didn't know that.
Thank you!

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?"

Throughout Jesus life even as a child he seemed to have an understanding of who he was and what his eventual fate would be. Could it be that to be the sacrificial lamb he had to experience the same pain and separation from God's love and presence to be worthy of the sacrifice. Perhaps he had to still seek the Lord God in the midst of what he felt was the abscence of the connection he had alway felt. Perhaps he knew what would happen but as a flesh and blood human he had to go through the genuine agony and then be sacrificed for all of mankinds sins. If he did not really endure the agony and was spared the true pain physically and emotionally, what kind of sacrificial example would that have been to human kind. Could not one then say, sure he went through all of that but he didn't really suffer because it was made easier. By God leaving him to suffer and then Jesus still turning to God and saying,your will be done, Jesus set the example for all mankind.

Perhaps Jesus existed, as a real person or fictional character, and writers superimposed stories from the Hebrews scriptures and from stories of various pagans Gods, etc, onto his own story.

I have a question which your statement just brought up in my mind. Yes, we ponder a lot of questions about Jesus but it seems to me the answer to whether he existed at all is crucial. We have only a bible which was written over 2000 years ago attesting to his existance. We know that the Jews kept exceptional historical documents. Is there any reference to Jesus of Nazareth in any Jewish writings? If he did live and if the Bible is an accounting of his life and death wouldn't there be something written by the jews denying that he is the mesiah?

There is a mention by Josephus.
Some think that it was genuine; some think that it was added by someone else.