There are only 15,000,000 Jews in a world of 6 billion people. They are 1/4 of 1% of the world, yet they are in the news every day, frequently persecuted or oppressed, and yet they survive, often thrive and are significant in the headlines almost daily. Welcome to what it means to be God's people. By: Wallace Erickson Source: Wallace Erickson, Chicago conversation, 1990

One of the most amazing stories to come out of World War II concernns a church leader in Bulgaria named Metropolitan Kyril. When the Nazis rounded up the Jews in his city and herded them into a barbed wire enclosure, he decided to act. The train that was supposed to take the Jews to Auschwitz pulled up at the station. The S.S. guards were just about ready to load the Jews into the box cars that would take them to the gas chambers, when suddenly, out of the darkness, Metropolitan Kyril appeared. He was a tall man to start with, but as an Orthodox priest, he wore a miter on his head, which must have made him appear like a giant as he emerged out of the darkness. He was wearing his black robes and his white beard hung over them. Marching behind him were many of the townspeople. Kyril went to the entrance of the barbed wire enclosure, which was then surrounded by his supporters. When the Nazi guards tried to stop them, he laughed at them and pushed aside their guns. He went in among the Jews and as they surrounded them, crying hysterically, he raised his hands. He quoted one Verse of Scripture, and with that verse her contibuted signifcantly to the changing destiny of a nation. Quoting from the Book of Ruth he declared to his Jewish friends, "Whither thou goest, I will go. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God!" The Jews cheered and the Christians joined in cheering. They were no longer separate peoples. They had become on in the declaration of the Word of God. Because of such heroics, not a single Bulgarian Jew ever died in a Nazi conventration campe during World War II, in spite of the fact that Bulgaria was one of the Nazi powers. When a man is willing to lay down his life to oppose oppression and injustice, amazing things can happen.

Paul the Apostle goes into a synagogue in the diaspora. He's asked to speak to the congregation. He steps up onto the bimah and says: "I have some good news, and I have some bad news. Which would you like to hear first?" The head rabbi replies, "Good news and bad news? Tell us the bad news first. The good news will console us." Paul says, "Okay, here's the bad news. The messiah has come, but he's been killed." "What!" exclaims the rabbi. "That's terrible news! What could possibly be good news?" Replies Paul, "The good news is -- that's good news!"