The motto of our country is “In God We Trust.” What does this mean? Up until just a few years ago, this means that we understood God in terms of the Bible.

Now we are open to any understanding of God so long as it includes the concept that He is the Creator of everything. Beyond this we are open to the concept that He acts with love in the best interest of all of His children. We appreciate the concept that His greatest commandments are that we love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and that we love our fellow human beings with the same respect we expect from them. The secular belief that we love and practice respect toward all human beings is grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

But we human beings have our problems. The explanation of our basic human problem is found in Genesis, chapter 3. This chapter of the Bible contains the story of the fall of mankind. Most people remember that God told our first parents not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or they would die.

Many people have asked me why God would not want His children to know the difference between good and evil. Do we not try to instruct our children about good and evil so that they will be better prepared to do the right thing when tempted to do what is wrong? Of course we do, but that’s not what God was talking about in Genesis, chapter 3.

God was saying that He is the One who defines what is good and what is evil. Eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil means that we human beings would be taking into ourselves the business of defining what is good and what is evil. At best these would be human definitions. Humanism is the doctrine that the human race is the ultimate source of our ideas about good and evil. This humanistic philosophy has been gaining an ever-stronger hold on the thinking of the American people.

We may be entering a time in our history as a nation when thinking of this kind will lead to the downfall of our democratic experiment. What happens to individuals, families, societies, civilizations, and nations when they decide to do something they declare to be moral and good, but really is something that contradicts the will of God?

Yes, our country’s motto is “In God We Trust.” But do we really believe this? We must be very careful that we make decisions that conform to the will of God. The issue comes down to this: We are called to do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven.

Recently I received a flier from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. They are now preparing for a grass-roots nationwide outreach. It will be called “My Hope with Billy Graham.” It will continue until November 2013.

You may remember that Billy Graham’s preaching in Los Angeles in 1949 led to the revival of the 1950s. He has written: “In my spirit I know God has called us to do this, and I pray He will stir your heart to join us.”

What can we do now? We can pray for our country and for nationwide revival.

And as you pray, it would be good to consider the meaning of the familiar words of the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

The Rev. Richard H. Petersen is an Evangelical Covenant pastor (retired).