A Christian Fatwa?: Contemporary Guidance in Holy Law
Posted Friday 20. March, 2026
Category: Philosophy & Theology ✷ ▼ Download (.md) ✷ Substack Version
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them -- Matthew 5:17
All serious religious systems eventually develop interpretive systems. In Islamic jurisprudence, fiqh, the concept of a fatwa, a non-binding but informed opinion from a religious authority, has been a concrete and standardized way of making practical rulings on religious law, shariah, since the beginning of Islam as an organized religion. Nowadays, the term has come to hold a negative connotation with the issue of a 1989 fatwa by Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini, commanding faithful and able muslims to assassinate the author Salman Rushdie due to his publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988. While this is a completely valid use of a fatwa, the majority of fatwas issued concern more mundane rulings, such as rules regarding tobacco smoking, singing, waxing body hair, and drinking soda.
Similarly, Rabbinic Judaism and so-called mainstream Christianity have had similar ways of gaining meaningful guidance from a religious authority. A posek, in Rabbinic Judaism, issues a psak halakha on the body of Jewish laws, halakha, and a bishop of a Christian church, or a council, are able to promulgate canon law.
Whereas the Christian churches have strayed from basing law on the Holy Scriptures, pronomian Christians, or Torah-Observants, aim to instill the holy Mosaic law in our everyday lives, and as a fundamental aspect of our faith. Ideally, this is a communal experience, as Christian churches have always been, but a solid framework for practical Torah-Observance within a singular church structure has been lacking for close to a century, the Sacred Name Movement within the broader Seventh-Day Adventist movement being among the first true "observant" strains that I am aware of.
This leaves us with a scattered "movement" and a lack in vision. This isn't surprising, as the very nature of the movement is found in skepticism in the mainstream acceptance of Holy Scripture, and as such, skepticism in the very structure of a church. This, however, is a grave mistake -- churches and organized religion are a force of good, if their teachings are solid and based in truth. If, then, we have the desire to unite Torah-Observance in an organized fashion some time in the future, which is a desire I have, we should also establish a protocol for issuing non-binding, but informed opinions on the day-to-day affairs of Torah-Observants, and a system of international dissemination of these.
The world of today is obviously not the same as it was two-thousand years ago. Today, we are confronted with a very different way of living. We have work, contracts, pre-packaged food, mass-produced goods, and a slew of modern conveniences unknown to the original audience of the Torah.
However, for this system to be truly Torah-Observant pronomian Christianity, it must first do away with the misguided appropriation of many modern day Torah-Observants -- this is a Christian movement, not a Jewish movement. We are Christians, not Jews. As such, our system must never rely on the mishnah or the talmud, must take no inspiration from contemporary Jewish law, and must adhere to Christianity fully, and without reservations.
Additionally, we should always be weary to base such a system firmly in the Torah only -- the Pharisees did the exact opposite, and were the primary target of Yeshua when he was on earth. They used law to become hypocrites, to burden, and to bind. We should base any system of this sort firmly on 1 John 5:3, "And His commands are not burdensome", and on the understanding that God's law is simple, plain and perfect. It should therefore be easy, simple, and plainly obvious to make a ruling, not relying massively on extrabiblical data, historical analysis, and scholarly opinions on Israelite culture contemporary to the Holy Scriptures.
This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome -- 1 John 5:2-3
I propose the Hebrew term amdah (עמדה), or savara (סברה), the former referring to a stance, and the latter best described as a reasoning, as useful names for this system. As such, issuing an amdah or issuing a savara would have a Biblical basis, the office of the elder and a collective authority being able to make judgements. One example of this in the New Testament is the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, wherein Christian leaders convene and make a judgement on behalf of the believers. In this verse, the Greek word krinó (κρίνω) is used to describe the formal judgement made by James regarding the circumcision of adult converts.
This has already been the de facto way modern Torah-Observant preachers have preached. One preacher, Lex Meyer, used to often present his videos in the style of a basic question, followed by a conclusion based on the Holy Scriptures. He has since gone the way of a regular click-baity preacher channel, although I still have massive respect for his work in promulgating Torah-Observance, especially an observance that is firmly and unapologetically Christian first and based and exegesis, not trying to be Jewish.
I'm writing this, not to announce or establish such a system, but to inspire future leaders and, God willing, a unified international Torah-Observant movement in considering this issue, which I have rarely, if ever, seen addressed. If our way is truthful, our tree will be fruitful and our movement organized properly!
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire -- Matthew 7:19
MARANATHA
M. L. Mayaan-Baruch
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