For many years, as I thought upon these heroes of history, a recurring question dogged me. Where are our pilgrims today, where are our Washingtons, our Lincolns? God knows we need them now more than ever. They all knew the same secret to our national salvation. It is the secret that built the nation, that allowed us to conquer the world’s superpower to gain our independence, and that allowed us to liberate slaves by the millions—that secret is a covenant with heaven. It’s a two-way promise. If you are righteous, the Lord declared, then will I conquer evil and bless your land.

So again, I ask, Where are our American covenant makers today? Shortly before Billy Graham passed away, I had the unique opportunity to sit with him one-on-one, and I asked him this very question. Graham told me. Instead of seeking for a single national leader to command a revolution or liberate the captive, that we should look to individuals—thousands of them— working independently of each other but toward that common cause. Working toward that national covenant with God. I believe Graham.

It is time to come together, it is time to restore the covenant.