Dutch Sheets: Thomas Jefferson’s Warning and a Prayer Strategy for the Supreme Court

Thirty years ago, I visited the Supreme Court for the first time.

On the way, I heard Holy Spirit speak as clearly as I’ve ever heard Him: “Now I am going to show you where the strong man over America lives.” The words “strong man” were taken from the passage of Scripture in Mark 3:27 (NASB1995): “But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.”

This statement did not mean that the Justices or the institution itself were evil. It meant that satan had established a stronghold there from which to implement his plans to control our nation. Since that day, part of my assignment has been to see this stronghold broken. Many others have been assigned this task as well, and not just through prayer. Numerous people have worked tirelessly to liberate the Court from this unrighteous control.

Most Americans are unaware that Thomas Jefferson, while not referencing the “strong man” of Scripture, warned of the potential for the judiciary to become a despotic branch of our government. A despot is a king or other ruler with absolute, unlimited power. Despotism, then, is absolute power or control; tyranny. With these definitions in mind, consider the following statement from Jefferson on September 28, 1820:

You seem…to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy…. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so…and their power [is] the more dangerous, as they are in office for life and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control…. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. (Stated in a letter to William Jarvis, Monticello Sep. 28, 20)

Unfortunately, Jefferson’s warning proved to be all too accurate. Sixty-plus years ago, the progressive, liberal left in the United States decided the best way, possibly the only way, to impose their will on the American people was not at the ballot box or through the Legislative Branch of our government, it was through the Supreme Court. The inappropriate belief that the Supreme Court had supreme power over all government decisions would allow only five unelected people to impose and enforce their will over 300,000,000 Americans. And their actions invited in the “strong man.” No entity or group has allowed more evil into America than the Supreme Court.

Five people.

As Phillip Jauregui points out so clearly in this ethical book, only five individuals were needed to remove God and His principles from American schools, our government, and the public square. They trampled on constitutional rights, made the right to murder babies the law of the land, and overruled the will of the people in 30 states, who agreed with God that marriage was between one man and one woman.

On June 26, 2015, five Justices decided they had the right to redefine a 6,000-year-old definition of marriage—a definition clearly given by God, mind you—and redefine this covenant He instituted! Just let that sink in: five people (two of whom had participated in gay wedding ceremonies, yet refused to recuse themselves), arrogantly granted themselves the “authority” to overrule God and the American people. The deception and arrogance of this decision was mind-numbing.

Regarding this usurpation, Justice Samuel Alito said:

Today’s decision usurps the constitutional right of the people to decide whether to keep or alter the traditional understanding of marriage....

All Americans, whatever their thinking on that issue, should worry about what the majority’s claim of power portends.

The late Justice Antonin Scalia stated, regarding this:

I write separately to call attention to this Court’s threat to American democracy. …Today’s decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court. …This practice of constitutional revision by an unelected committee of nine, always accompanied (as it is today) by extravagant praise of liberty, robs the People of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776: the freedom to govern themselves. …To allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation: no social transformation without representation.

Despotism, indeed.

My journey of prayer for this out-of-control Court took a decidedly different turn in 2023 when speaking with Phillip. He shared with me regarding what he believed the Lord had told him a few years prior: “Begin seeing the Court not as your enemy, but as a prodigal that I love.” Then he said to me, “I believe it is time to consecrate the Court to God. What do you think about this?”

My response was, “I need to think about what I think about all of that!” I did think, and prayed…and agreed! To say this launched me into a new phase of my prayers for the Supreme Court would be an understatement. I believe it will be yours, also, as you read Phillip’s explanations and insights.

Because of the work of people like Phillip and the prayers of many others, I now believe the “strong man” has been bound and expelled from the Supreme Court. This means we can now pray as Phillip urges us in this outstanding book, for the “prodigal” Court to return to the Father’s house.