Doctrine Analysis
Doctrine Analysis
This Language Package’s doctrine_risk_registry.json tracks 40 doctrines across Romans 1–16, each assigned a risk tier that drives Phase 2 review routing.
Risk tier summary
| Tier | Count | Review routing | Example doctrines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical | 5 | Human theologian, every occurrence | Grace, Salvation, Deity of Christ, Lordship of Christ, Power of God for Salvation |
| High | 20 | Human theologian | Divine Calling, Faith, Adoption, Sanctification, Spiritual Gifts, Providence, Universal Scope of the Gospel |
| Medium | 10 | Native speaker review | Gospel, Messianic Promise, Peace with God, Mission to the Nations, Evangelism |
| Low | 5 | Automated review only | Apostleship, Thanksgiving, Mutual Edification, Christian Fellowship, Kingdom Mission |
Why Critical doctrines cluster where they do
Korean’s five Critical-risk doctrines are the narrowest and most concentrated set in this batch of four languages, and they cluster specifically around the shamanism-and-spirit-power axis: Grace and Power of God for Salvation are Critical because of Korean Christianity’s own well-documented internal critique of 기복신앙 (“fortune-seeking faith”), a shamanistically-patterned transactional approach to blessing; Deity of Christ and Lordship of Christ are Critical for the same reasons they are everywhere in this pipeline (guarding against a merely-powerful-spirit reading); and Salvation is Critical against Buddhist liberation (해탈). Notably, several doctrines that are Critical or High elsewhere in this pipeline — Incarnation, Sonship of Christ, Resurrection, Kingdom Mission — are High, Medium, or even Low here, reflecting Korea’s comparatively lower competing-ideology risk (no Mandate-of-Heaven-style state theology, no living-god emperor doctrine, no Maitreya-scale folk-messianic movement).
Review routing rationale
Critical and High risk doctrines (25 of 40, the lowest combined total in this batch) require mandatory human theologian review because an automated or native-speaker-only check could confirm the Korean is fluent and doctrinally literate-sounding without catching a subtle shamanistic-transactional undertone in a grace or power passage. Native speaker review is sufficient for Medium-risk doctrines, where the concern is more often achievement-culture framing (e.g. Mission to the Nations’ growth-metrics risk) than doctrinal contradiction.
Critical Risk Doctrines
Deity of Christ
Korean name: 그리스도의 신성
Key terms: son of God, declared son, God over all
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: co-equal, eternal divine nature — not a spiritually powerful shamanistic deity or ancestor-spirit granted elevated status. Must not be softened toward ‘an especially powerful spirit’.
Grace
Korean name: 은혜
Key terms: grace, unmerited, gift, given freely
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: the central Korean risk term. Korean Christianity’s well-documented, self-critical history around 기복신앙 (‘fortune-seeking faith,’ a shamanistically-inflected transactional pattern of seeking material blessing) risks turning unconditional grace into a reciprocal exchange. Must always reinforce grace as unearned and non-transactional.
Lordship of Christ
Korean name: 그리스도의 주되심
Key terms: lord, lord jesus, jesus is lord
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Romans 10:9 — 예수는 주님이시다 is the salvation confession. Exclusive, supreme Lordship, correctly marked with the honorific 님 suffix; not reducible to an employer/owner title (주인님).
Power of God for Salvation
Korean name: 구원을 위한 하나님의 능력
Key terms: power of God, God’s power
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: 능력 required, but must be explicitly distinguished from a mudang’s shamanistic spirit-power (영력) sought for healing/blessing. Romans 1:16’s power is specifically God’s power to save from sin, not generalized this-worldly power.
Salvation
Korean name: 구원
Key terms: salvation, saved, save, deliverance
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: NEVER 해탈 (Buddhist liberation from samsara). Salvation is reconciliation with a personal God through Christ, received by faith in this life, not escape from an impersonal suffering-cycle.
High Risk Doctrines
Adoption into God’s Family
Korean name: 하나님 가족의 양자 됨
Key terms: adoption, spirit of adoption, sons, children of God, abba
Review routing: Human theologian
Traditional Korean heir-adoption existed primarily to continue Confucian ancestor-memorial rites (제사), an instrumental rather than relational purpose. Biblical adoption brings a believer into relational family belonging and full inheritance.
Assurance of Salvation
Korean name: 구원의 확신
Key terms: nothing can separate, who shall separate, no condemnation, more than conquerors
Review routing: Human theologian
Assurance rests on God’s unchanging character, not on an ongoing fortune-seeking exchange (기복신앙) that could always still be judged insufficiently maintained.
Christian Identity in Christ
Korean name: 그리스도 안에서의 신자의 정체성
Key terms: in Christ, in Christ Jesus, united with Christ, dead to sin alive to God
Review routing: Human theologian
Identity located in union with Christ, not in family/clan lineage status, social achievement (출세), or ritual loyalty performance.
Divine Calling
Korean name: 하나님의 부르심
Key terms: called, calling
Review routing: Human theologian
Must be kept distinct from saju-paljja birth-chart astrology (사주팔자), still commonly consulted in Korea. God’s call is personal and relational, not a fixed fate read off a birth chart.
Effectual Calling
Korean name: 유효한 부르심
Key terms: called, calling, election, chosen
Review routing: Human theologian
God’s sovereign call that secures the salvation of the called; not a birth-chart-determined fate (팔자) or competitive-selection outcome.
Faith
Korean name: 믿음
Key terms: faith, believe, belief, trust
Review routing: Human theologian
Personal trust in Christ specifically, not superstitious belief (미신) or confidence placed in fortune-telling/astrology practices still common in Korean folk life.
Fulfillment of Prophecy
Korean name: 예언의 성취
Key terms: prophecy, promised, foretold, scriptures say
Review routing: Human theologian
Linear, one-time historical fulfillment (OT to NT), not a fortune-telling prediction (점, 사주팔자 예측) coming true by chance.
Incarnation
Korean name: 성육신
Key terms: flesh, seed of David, son born, came in flesh
Review routing: Human theologian
NEVER 화신 (a Buddhist avatar/incarnation-of-a-buddha concept describing a provisional, repeatable manifestation). The incarnation is a permanent, unique taking of human nature.
Inspiration of Scripture
Korean name: 성경의 영감
Key terms: scriptures, holy scriptures, prophets
Review routing: Human theologian
Distinguish God-breathed Scripture from Confucian classical texts (경, gyeong) transmitted through a scholarly lineage, or from folk divination manuals; Scripture is the direct communication of a personal God.
Obedience of Faith
Korean name: 믿음의 순종
Key terms: obedience of faith, obedience, faith-produced obedience
Review routing: Human theologian
Korea’s historically rigorous Confucian hierarchical-obedience ethics (including the traditional, rejected ‘three obediences’ doctrine for women) risk reducing obedience of faith to hierarchical social-status compliance rather than a Spirit-produced response to grace.
Providence
Korean name: 섭리
Key terms: all things work together, God works, foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified
Review routing: Human theologian
God’s personal, purposive care, not a birth-chart-determined fate (팔자) from the still-common saju-paljja folk-astrology system. Romans 8:28 is specifically vulnerable to a fatalism-flavored reading.
Resurrection of Christ
Korean name: 그리스도의 부활
Key terms: raised, resurrection, from the dead, raised from death
Review routing: Human theologian
부활, not 환생 (rebirth) or 윤회 (reincarnation cycle). Korea’s long-established Christian vocabulary tradition somewhat lowers day-to-day collision risk relative to less-Christianized contexts, but the doctrinal distinction from Buddhist rebirth remains essential to maintain.
Sainthood (Called to be Holy)
Korean name: 성도로 부르심을 받음
Key terms: saints, holy ones, called to be holy
Review routing: Human theologian
All believers are 성도 corporately; not an elevated Daoist-immortal (신선) or spiritually-accomplished-master (도인) class.
Sanctification
Korean name: 성화
Key terms: sanctification, holiness, set apart, holy living
Review routing: Human theologian
Spirit-wrought process, distinguished from ascetic self-cultivation (수행, 도 닦기) drawn from Korean Buddhist/folk-religious practice.
Separation unto God’s Service
Korean name: 하나님의 일을 위해 구별됨
Key terms: set apart, separated, holy
Review routing: Human theologian
Must not be confused with shamanistic ritual purification performed in a gut ceremony to remove misfortune (부정을 씻음). Biblical separation is devotion to God while remaining engaged in ordinary life.
Sonship of Christ
Korean name: 그리스도의 아들 되심
Key terms: son of God, his son, God’s son
Review routing: Human theologian
Korea’s own founding myth (Dangun/Hwanung as son of the heavenly god Hwanin) offers a real but comparatively low-intensity echo, being legendary rather than a living state ideology. Christ’s Sonship is eternal and unique.
Spiritual Gifts
Korean name: 은사
Key terms: spiritual gift, gift, grace gift, measure of faith
Review routing: Human theologian
Spirit-given enablements for building up the church; must not be framed as a shaman’s spirit-power (영력) sought for personal display or this-worldly benefit, a risk Korean charismatic church leaders have themselves flagged.
Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Korean name: 유대인과 이방인의 하나 됨
Key terms: Jew and Gentile, no distinction, one body, olive tree
Review routing: Human theologian
Directly challenges any lingering ethnic-insider framing; must translate with theological clarity rather than softened diplomatic language.
Universal Human Accountability
Korean name: 전 인류의 하나님 앞에서의 책임
Key terms: all have sinned, no one is righteous, no distinction, all are accountable
Review routing: Human theologian
All humanity equally guilty before God regardless of social standing; must be taught as guilt before a personal God, not merely loss of face (체면 손상) or bad luck (액운).
Universal Scope of the Gospel
Korean name: 복음의 보편성
Key terms: everyone who believes, all who call, no distinction, Jew and Gentile
Review routing: Human theologian
No ethnic barrier to the gospel; must resist framing that echoes Korea’s ethnic-nationalist 단일민족 (‘single ethnic nation’) self-conception. Retain unqualified universality.
Medium Risk Doctrines
Christ-Centered Ministry
Korean name: 그리스도 중심의 사역
Key terms: what Christ has accomplished through me, in Christ Jesus, minister of Christ
Review routing: Native speaker review
Ministry done in Christ’s name and by his power, for his glory, not achievement-oriented ministry success measured by growth metrics.
Church as God’s People
Korean name: 하나님의 백성으로서의 교회
Key terms: body of Christ, one body, church, saints, assembly
Review routing: Native speaker review
New covenant community, not a shamanistic village shrine (당집) or Buddhist temple institution (절).
Davidic Covenant
Korean name: 다윗 언약
Key terms: seed of David, David, covenant
Review routing: Native speaker review
Requires OT background explanation; Korean already distinguishes 언약 (covenant) cleanly from 계약 (commercial contract), which helps rather than hinders this doctrine’s clarity relative to some other languages in this pipeline.
Evangelism
Korean name: 전도
Key terms: preach, proclaim, evangelize, send, how will they hear
Review routing: Native speaker review
Frame in terms of gospel-motivated proclamation and witness, not numbers-driven achievement culture.
Gospel
Korean name: 복음
Key terms: gospel, good news
Review routing: Native speaker review
복음 is established and unambiguous as a word, but its root character 복 (fortune/blessing) sits inside the same semantic field targeted by 기복신앙 (‘fortune-seeking faith’) critique; teaching must be explicit the gospel announces salvation, not forecasted prosperity.
Humanity of Christ
Korean name: 그리스도의 인성
Key terms: born of the seed of David, flesh, human
Review routing: Native speaker review
Real, physical human nature, not a provisional manifestation-form (화신) exchangeable for another appearance.
Messianic Promise
Korean name: 메시아의 약속
Key terms: messiah, christ, anointed, promised
Review routing: Native speaker review
Korea’s high existing Christian literacy makes this comparatively lower-risk than in Japan; still avoid conflating with 미륵 (Maitreya, the future Buddha of Korean Buddhist eschatology, historically invoked by Korean folk-millenarian movements).
Mission to the Nations
Korean name: 만민을 향한 선교
Key terms: nations, gentiles, all peoples, to the ends of the earth
Review routing: Native speaker review
Korea is a leading missionary-sending nation; the caution here is a success-and-growth-oriented missions culture rather than a foreign-stigma or receptivity problem. Emphasize gospel motivation over metrics.
Peace with God
Korean name: 하나님과의 화평
Key terms: peace with God, peace, peace through justification
Review routing: Native speaker review
Relational, covenantal peace through justification (화평), kept distinct from the general well-being greeting sense of 평안.
Prayer and Intercession
Korean name: 기도와 중보
Key terms: prayer, intercession, pray, groan, spirit intercedes
Review routing: Native speaker review
Direct access to God in Christ’s name; distinguish from a mudang’s ritual mediation between the living and spirits during a gut ceremony.
Low Risk Doctrines
Apostleship
Korean name: 사도직
Key terms: apostle
Review routing: Automated review
Low collision risk: 사도 is specific and established. Minor risk of conflation with a shamanistic intermediary role (무당) if paraphrased loosely.
Christian Fellowship
Korean name: 성도의 교제
Key terms: fellowship, share, participate, community
Review routing: Automated review
Shared participation in Christ; no significant doctrinal risk.
Kingdom Mission
Korean name: 하나님 나라의 사명
Key terms: kingdom of God, righteousness peace and joy, advance the kingdom
Review routing: Automated review
God’s reign advancing through the gospel; Korea has no live competing ‘divine kingdom’ state ideology, making this comparatively lower-risk than in some other languages in this pipeline.
Mutual Edification
Korean name: 서로 덕을 세움
Key terms: build up, edify, encourage one another, strengthen
Review routing: Automated review
Building one another up in faith; no significant doctrinal risk.
Thanksgiving
Korean name: 감사
Key terms: thanksgiving, give thanks, grateful, thank God
Review routing: Automated review
Standard term; minor risk of generic secular gratitude without reference to God specifically.
Referenced passages