A week before election day, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden used scripture to encourage his voters at a rally in Warm Springs, Georgia. He spoke of Ecclesiastes 3, and said that God is calling the nation to heal from the coronavirus pandemic, racial unrest, and political division. Biden says he is ready to make America one nation under God again.

“I run to unite this nation, to heal this nation. I’ve said that from the beginning. It’s badly necessary. The Bible tells us there’s a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to heal. This is that time. God in history has called us to this moment and to this mission,” Biden said to voters.

“With our voices and our votes, [we] must free ourselves from the forces of darkness, from the forces of division and the forces of yesterday, from the forces that pull us apart, hold us down and hold us back. And if we do so, we’ll once more become one nation under God, indivisible, a nation united, a nation strengthened, a nation healed. That is my goal. That is why I’m running.”

Biden continued with his speech by arguing was due to the deep wounds in the political division. He commented, “I know this country. I know our people. And I know we can unite and heal this nation.”

“These are historic, painful crises. The insidious virus, the economic anguish, the systematic discrimination, and one of them could have rocked the nation. Any one of them. Yet we’ve been hit by all three at once. But if we are honest with ourselves, the pain striking at the heart of our country … goes back years,” he insisted.

Biden believes we have stopped seeing the love in one another, and that politics has far too long become “mean and bitter and divisive.”

“We’ve stopped seeing dignity in one another. We’ve stopped showing each other respect. Too many among us spend more time shouting than listening, more time fighting than working together, more time demonizing and denigrating others than lifting them up. The divisions in our nation are getting wider. … Anger and suspicion are growing and our wounds are getting deeper and many wonder, has it gone too far? Have we passed the pointed of no return?” he asked. “Has the heart of this nation turned to stone? I don’t think so. I refuse to believe it. I know this country. I know our people and I know we can unite and heal this nation.”