The papal conclave that begins today will be the most geographically diverse in the church’s two-thousand-year history, with clerics from seventy countries participating. They have been meeting at the Vatican nearly every day since April 22, the day after Pope Francis’s death, to discuss matters facing the global church.

This afternoon, one of the most famous and yet secretive traditions in history will officially begin as the cardinals meet to elect the church’s 267^th pope. Here’s what you need to know and why it matters to us all.

What is a “conclave”?

In 1268, cardinals gathered to elect a new pope. They became deadlocked and continued meeting for almost three years. Local magistrates and residents became so frustrated that they locked the cardinals into a room until a decision was reached.

This is where the term conclave originates, meaning “with a key” in Latin.

The cardinals were fed only bread and water passed through a window. When this did not expedite the process, the magistrate removed the roof of the room to “let the Holy Spirit in.” This led to the election of Pope Gregory X, who laid the foundation for the conclave process still used today.

The first conclave to be held in the Sistine Chapel was in 1492. However, the chapel did not become the sole location for papal elections until 1878. Interestingly, the chapel, which was completed in 1481, was purportedly designed to match the dimensions of Solomon’s Temple.

The tradition of burning the ballots dates back to at least the year 1417. However, the iconic black and white smoke—the former when no pope is elected and the latter when a new pope is chosen—was not introduced until 1914. The appropriate smoke is produced by burning the ballots with a mix of chemicals. Bells also chime once a new pope has been elected, a practice that began in 2005.

Who is eligible?

Catholics believe that Peter was the first pope and that his remains are buried beneath the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica. I was privileged some years ago to tour the catacombs and stand within twenty feet or so of the grave; archaeological evidence supports the claim that it is his.

Over the centuries since, popes have included laymen and deacons, along with many bishops. In fact, any unmarried, male, baptized Catholic is canonically eligible.

However, the last non-cardinal to be elected pope was Pope Urban VI in 1378. Since his time, only cardinals have been elevated to the papacy.

How does the process work?

Only cardinals under the age of eighty are eligible to vote; they are known as cardinal electors. At 4:30 this afternoon, Vatican time, the 133 electors will gather and process to the Sistine Chapel. They will take an oath of absolute secrecy, then the doors will be sealed.

They vote through secret ballots reading Eligo in summum pontificem, “I elect as supreme pontiff,” followed by a name. The cardinals then approach the three scrutineers (cardinals chosen by a random drawing from the electors) in front of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment fresco. They fold their ballots twice and drop them in an urn. The scrutineers tally them and announce the results to all the cardinals. The ballots are then burned.

One round of voting will occur today. If a candidate does not receive two-thirds of the votes, voting will continue up to four times a day, twice in the morning and twice in the evening, until a candidate receives the necessary votes. (The 2005 and 2013 conclaves each lasted two days.) The public will be notified of each vote through the black and white smoke signals.

Once the conclave elects a pope, the dean of the College of Cardinals will ask him if he accepts the title. If he does, he will then select his papal name, a practice that began in AD 533 when a priest named Mercurius was elected pope. Because he was named after a pagan Roman god, he selected a new name after a previous pope. Since then, most popes have chosen a new name, usually connected to a previous pope or figure in church history they wish to emulate.

The new pope will then be led to the “Room of Tears” in the Sistine Chapel (named for the overwhelming emotion past pontiffs have experienced). There, he will dress in white robes and receive a new pectoral cross and white zucchetto (head cap). The cardinals will greet the new pope and pledge their obedience to him.

He will then walk out to the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. The senior-most cardinal deacon will announce to the crowd assembled below, Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: Habermus Papam (“I announce to you a great joy: We have a pope”) and introduce the church’s new leader by the title he has selected. The new pope will then deliver a blessing to the crowd.

Why is the conclave relevant to us all?

For those of us of who are not Catholics, all of this may be interesting but seem less than relevant. However, as the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics, the pope is the most influential Christian leader in the world, with cultural significance far outside the church. Pope St. John Paul II, for example, helped end the Cold War and advance human rights around the globe.

However, we have an even more fundamental reason to pray for the conclave as it begins.

Jude wrote his canonical letter “to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (v. 3). He did so to counter those who “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (v. 4).

You and I face such times today. Churches and entire denominations are endorsing abortion, same-sex marriage, LGBTQ ideology, and euthanasia. Many dismiss biblical authority as outdated and even dangerous. While I disagree with the Roman Catholic Church on many topics, I am deeply grateful for its courageous commitment to the sanctity of life and marriage and its steadfast ministry to the impoverished and others in need.

I have spoken on several panels over the years alongside clergy from various denominations. Almost without fail, it was the Catholic priest more than anyone else who agreed with my position on biblical truth, Jesus’ bodily resurrection, the necessity of faith in Christ, and the relevance of biblical morality today. As a medical ethicist, I can testify that Catholic healthcare systems are some of the finest in our country and among the most aligned with biblical morality.

So, I am praying for the next pope to be a courageous and stalwart defender of biblical truth in the face of encroaching secularism and a voice for Christian unity and global mission. And I am recommitting myself to “contend for the faith” in my own sphere of influence by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

Will you join me today?

Quote for the day:

“The most beautiful and stirring adventure that can happen to you is the personal meeting with Jesus, who is the only one who gives real meaning to our lives.” —Pope St. John Paul II

Our latest website resources:

• “Thunderbolts*”: An entertaining guide to dealing with guilt
• An Israeli’s view on the future of Gaza: The only path to a lasting freedom for the people of Gaza
• Reconciling the “Gods” of the Old and New Testaments
• A review of Michael Heiser’s “The Unseen Realm”: Understanding the Old Testament’s most confusing passages
• Meta and Apple fined nearly $1 billion and an exposé of Meta: Why stories matter

Denison Forum

Antisemitism at Harvard and the power of ideas

Police in England arrested five men, including four Iranian nationals, over the weekend in what is being described as one of the largest counter-terrorism operations in recent years. Authorities report that the “Iranian terror attack” was foiled with just hours to spare. Speculation mounted that the target may have been a synagogue or another target linked to the Jewish community.

If so, we can only wish to be surprised.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have announced a “comprehensive” aerial blockade repeatedly targeting Israel’s airports. This after a missile strike Sunday hit near Ben Gurion Airport, the latest in a string of attacks. In response, some twenty Israeli fighter jets struck targets in Yemen last night.

Closer to home, the New York Times reported recently that a task force at Harvard University found antisemitism has “infiltrated coursework, social life, the hiring of some faculty members, and the worldview of certain academic programs.” The rabbi and theologian David Wolpe recently spent a year as a visiting scholar at Harvard, where he saw personally how the October 7 massacre of Jews by Hamas “intensified hatred against Jews on an already hostile campus.”

He reports that Jewish students “were insulted, shunned, harassed, and hounded in a hundred different ways.” One student, having walked through Harvard Yard while being screamed at by protesters, said to him, “They don’t just hate what I believe. They hate me.”

Such sentiment illustrates the warning of French philosopher Emile Chartier, “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have.”

How Freud explained antisemitism

Four days of celebrations in the UK began yesterday to commemorate eighty years since Sir Winston Churchill declared victory over Germany in World War II. King Charles III and the royal family took part, along with huge crowds and a military parade.

An estimated fifteen to twenty million people in Europe—six million of them Jews—died in the war because of the horrific idea of one man. A historian said of Adolf Hitler: “No other political leader of the era would have harnessed national passions or driven an anti-Semitic, pure-race agenda with such ferocity or tragic consequence, resulting in the deaths of millions of European Jews as well as gypsies, homosexuals, the weak, and disabled.”

Hitler’s maniacal commitment to the genocide of the Jews was fueled by eugenic theories, popular in the day, that claimed some people were genetically superior to others and sought to purify races accordingly. Charles Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, was a key early figure in this movement, building on Darwin’s “natural selection” theory to advance “race betterment.” Nietzsche’s advocacy of the “overcomer” additionally prompted Hitler’s elevation of Aryans to “super-race status” and reinforced his hatred of the Jews as their enemies.

Ideological prejudice against the Jews has tragically been the norm across much of their history. Sigmund Freud, who was born on this day in 1856, identified several such sources of antisemitism:

• The Jews are hated because they survive and thrive.
• They are forced to live differently, which provokes hatred against them.
• They are excluded and then seen as holding themselves separate.
• They are objects of fascination, but this creates envy.
• They are allowed only the currency of intellectuality, but their fantasized “cleverness” is then feared.

To this we can add claims by critical theory advocate and Columbia scholar Edward Said, who believes like many others that Israel is a “colonialist occupier” of Palestinian land and “oppressor” of the Palestinian people. Unsurprisingly, the BBC is reporting today that support among Americans for Israel is at its lowest level since Gallup began tracking it twenty-five years ago. Antisemitism continues to rise in the West even as teenage terrorists being radicalized online threaten our security and our future.

“We are remade in the likeness of his Son”

I have taught and published widely on Israel and Judaism for many years and have led more than thirty study tours to the Holy Land. In my work as a seminary professor, pastor, and philosopher, I have often reflected on sources of antisemitism. In my mind, jealousy and fear of the Jews’ success and uniqueness fuel much of the persecution they continue to face.

Their enduring significance can be traced to their commitment to this foundational text in the Hebrew Bible:

God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27).

They genuinely believe that each person bears the image of God and is thus able and obligated to worship and serve the Creator according to the laws he has given us. Their passion for literacy stems from their commitment to reading and following the Torah; their drive to improve their land and the world at large stems from their partnership with God in stewarding his creation (cf. Genesis 2:15).

The only idea more transformative than the Jews’ commitment to the imago Dei is the gospel proclamation that this “image” can be restored and redeemed in Christ. As the great theologian Athanasius (ca. AD 298–373) wrote:

We were made “in the likeness of God.” But in course of time that image has become obscured, like a face on a very old portrait, dimmed with dust and dirt.

When a portrait is spoiled, the only way to renew it is for the subject to come back to the studio and sit for the artist all over again. This is why Christ came—to make it possible for the divine image in man to be recreated. We were made in God’s likeness; we are remade in the likeness of his Son.

To bring about this re-creation, Christ still comes to men and lives among them. In a special way he comes to his Church, his “body,” to show us what the “image of God” is really like.

What a responsibility the Church has, to be Christ’s “body,” showing him to those who are unwilling or unable to see him in providence or in creation! Through the word of God lived out in the body of Christ, they can come to the Father, and themselves be made again “in the likeness of God.”

“All right knowledge is born of obedience”

If all Christians were to reflect the “image of God” as the body of Christ today, what steps would we take to combat antisemitism and encourage Jews to know their Messiah? How powerfully would we reveal Christ to those who are “unwilling or unable to see him in providence or in creation”?

For us to reflect this “image,” as Athanasius noted, the word of God must be “lived out in the body of Christ.” In his May 5 devotional, my friend Dr. Duane Brooks quoted John Calvin: “All right knowledge is born of obedience.” Then Duane commented:

“God’s next work in our lives begins with his grace and comes to fruition when we obey.”

Will you experience your Father’s “next work” in your life today?

Quote for the day:

“We can’t take the next step with God until we do the last thing he told us to do.” —Dr. Duane Brooks

Our latest website resources:

• An Israeli’s view on the future of Gaza: The only path to a lasting freedom for the people of Gaza

• Reconciling the “Gods” of the Old and New Testaments
• A review of Michael Heiser’s “The Unseen Realm”: Understanding the Old Testament’s most confusing passages
• Meta and Apple fined nearly $1 billion and an exposé of Meta: Why stories matter
• Pope Francis on five ways to engage a hostile culture

Denison Forum

The only path to a lasting freedom for the people of Gaza

News broke over the weekend that Israel is calling up tens of thousands of reservists as it prepares to continue its latest push into Gaza. The stated hope is to pressure Hamas into renewed negotiations to return the fifty-nine remaining hostages, with the clear message that their opportunity to do so is running out before IDF forces go in to get them.

In Gaza, there are signs of an uprising by civilians against Hamas. While not yet in significant numbers—and Hamas has been public in their persecutions of those who have spoken out—it’s happening.

I know the Gaza area quite well, and even used to take groups to tour around it.

More than 3000 years ago, Gaza was a large and important city. Its importance stemmed from its location on the “Via Maris,” which connected the southern empire in Egypt with the northeastern and eastern empires (Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria). It served the spice traders on their journey from the east to Europe and back.

Gaza is also a prominent area in the Bible, with both the Old and New Testaments mentioning it.

The region appears 22 times in the Old Testament, such as in Judges 1:18, where it describes how “Judah also captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.” The story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:26 also takes place in this region: “Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”

My time in Gaza

An archaeological construction from the Byzantine period (5th century BC) was discovered by the Egyptians who ruled the Strip in 1965, when they wanted to build a casino there. Hebrew names in the mosaic, an image of King David perched on a harp, and the direction of prayer facing Jerusalem are all evidence of an ancient synagogue.

But for as much history as we find in Gaza, I wouldn’t recommend visiting anytime soon. Much of it looked terrible even before the war devastated the region, and that is still the case today.

For years, I did my army duty in the Gaza area, mainly at the border between Israel and Egypt. The border is divided by a tall fence with army positions on both sides.

When we signed a peace agreement with Egypt, both sides were very generous to each other: “You take Rafah,” we said to the Egyptians. “No, no, you can take it,” the Egyptians answered. Ultimately, the Palestinian city of Rafah was divided in the middle, and this remains true to this day.

In my Army base, we had the keys to the Palestinian mayor’s house in Rafah. He frequently needed our protection from his own people. I never understood what the mayor did, considering the sewage ran in the streets while garbage and terrible smells penetrated everything. It was the “ best” way to lose weight, as it was impossible to erase the smell for two months.

That said, it’s difficult to understand Gaza’s current state without knowing a bit more about its history.

How Gaza became what it is today

In Israel’s 1948 war for independence, we were attacked by five Arab countries. After the war, the Gaza Strip remained under Egyptian control. 250,000 Palestinians fled to Gaza, where the existing population was 80,000. To house everyone, Egypt built refugee camps for the new population.

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel gained control of Gaza among other areas.

The area remained under Israeli control until 2005, when Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip completely. It was the end of a process that began with the Oslo Agreement, where the Gaza Strip became a Palestinian autonomous area.

Today, the population of Gaza is about 1.9 million, 1.3 million (68 percent) of whom are considered refugees. That is an incredibly high number, and so many remain due primarily to the work of a UN organization called UNRWA.

The following description is taken word by word from the official page of this UN organization:

UNRWA is unique in terms of its long-standing commitment to one group of refugees. It has contributed to the welfare and human development of four generations of Palestinian refugees, defined as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period June 1, 1946, to May 15, 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 War.”

The “unique” way in which the UNRWA has “contributed” to the state of Gaza has resulted in one of the biggest failures I can think of.

Palestinians are the only people to retain refugee status generation after generation as a result of United Nations support. It made them completely passive.

A combination of UN support and the thought that “Allah will provide” makes it difficult to see how they will ever move beyond their challenging situation. That said, a good first step would be to stop enabling 5.9 million Palestinians to live as refugees.

I do not see a way for the people of Gaza to escape domination by Hamas unless they take responsibility for their lives. As plans are made to rebuild Gaza, working to ensure that its people can—and must—try to move beyond their refugee status is a crucial step in ensuring that the region can have a chance at sustainable peace going forward.

Do your part

We Jews were refugees more times than I can count across our history, but we always fought to move on. We did everything to improve our lives and to have a better future.

Scripture teaches that God is omnipresent, meaning He exists everywhere and at all times. This belief is central to the Jewish understanding of God’s nature, as expressed in prayers like the Shema, which affirms God’s unity and universality. However, Judaism also emphasizes human responsibility and free will in shaping one’s life.

Judaism encourages trust in God while actively engaging in efforts to improve oneself and the world, reflecting a balance between divine presence and human initiative.

I don’t know how to solve the Gaza problem, but I do know that the situation there will never really improve until the human initiative to take responsibility for that improvement is valued by the people living there.

And the same is true in our lives as well. Sitting back and waiting on God to make us better will never result in the kind of transformation the Lord longs to create in us. He has blessed us to have a part in that growth.

Will you do your part today?

Denison Forum