Doctrine Analysis
11 Doctrine Analysis — Acts (English → Mandarin)
Curriculum: Acts 1–28
Core passage: Acts 2:1–41 (Pentecost)
Consistency statement: This document is fully consistent with assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json (Acts). Doctrine names, risk tiers, and review routing below are reproduced exactly from that registry; no tier is altered here. This file adds the full-book chapter matrix and translation-risk detail required by PRD Phase 1 Steps 4–5, and extends (never contradicts) the baseline Romans doctrine_risk_registry.json.
Part A — Doctrine Matrix (Registry-Aligned)
The 19 doctrines below are identical in name, risk tier, and review routing to assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json. This table adds full-book passage coverage (beyond the registry’s “primary_passages” sampling) and a condensed translation-risk rationale for Phase 2 routing reference.
| # | Doctrine | Risk | Supporting Passages (full-book) | Translation Risk (condensed) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Holy Spirit and Pentecost | Critical | 1:5,8; 2:1-4,17-18,33; 4:8,31; 6:3,5; 7:55; 8:14-17; 9:17,31; 10:44-47; 11:15-16,24; 13:2,4,9,52; 15:8,28; 16:6-7; 19:1-6; 20:22-23,28; 21:4,11 | 被圣灵充满 borders folk mediumistic spirit-possession (被灵附身); wind/fire imagery risks collision with 气 and ritual-incense association. Must render personal, benevolent, coherent indwelling. | Human theologian |
| 2 | The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | High | 1:8; 8:4-25,26-40; 10:1-48; 11:1-18,19-21; 13:5,14-16,42-48; 14:1; 15:1-29; 17:1-4,17; 18:4,19; 19:8-10; 28:17-28 | 洁净/俗物 (clean/unclean) risks folk dietary-purity-merit reading; must anchor to abolished ceremonial Jew-Gentile barrier, not general food ethics. | Human theologian |
| 3 | Repentance and Baptism | Critical | 2:37-41; 3:19; 8:12-13,36-38; 9:18; 10:47-48; 16:14-15,31-33; 18:8; 19:3-5; 22:16 | 悔改 must never become 忏悔 (Buddhist ritual confession reducing karmic weight); baptism must not read as a generic ceremonial-defilement wash; three distinct baptisms (John’s, Christian, Spirit) must stay distinguishable. | Human theologian |
| 4 | The Church as Community | High | 2:42-47; 4:32-37; 6:1-7; 9:31; 11:19-26; 12:5,12; 14:23,27; 15:4,22; 16:5; 18:24-28; 20:17-38 | 凡物公用 risks 20th-century Chinese collectivization vocabulary; must be taught as voluntary, Spirit-motivated generosity, not mandate. 教会 must stay distinct from temple/clan-association categories. | Human theologian |
| 5 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | High | 2:43; 3:1-10; 4:29-31,33; 5:1-11,12-16; 6:6; 8:6-7,9-24; 9:12,17,34,40; 13:6-12; 14:3,8-10; 19:6,11-20; 28:8-9 | Miracles must be sharply distinguished from 邪术 and from accepted folk 法术; 按手 must never be transferable/purchasable power (cf. Simon Magus, 8:18-24). | Human theologian |
| 6 | Persecution and Bold Witness | High | 4:1-31; 5:17-42; 6:8-15; 7:54-8:3; 9:23-25,29; 12:1-19; 14:19-22; 16:19-24,37-39; 17:5-9,13; 18:12-17; 19:23-41; 20:22-24; 21:27-36; 22:22-29; 23:1-35; 24:1-27; 25:1-12; 26:24-32 | 放胆 must avoid reckless-insubordination connotation (莽撞); Spirit-produced confidence, not natural bravado. 逼迫 must stay distinct from generic hardship/misfortune (苦难). | Human theologian |
| 7 | Conversion of Paul | Critical | 9:1-19,20-30; 22:3-21; 26:9-23 | 这道 (the Way) risks Daoist 道 metaphysical absorption or “one path among many” reading; Paul’s encounter is a specific personal Christophany, not generic mystical-light testimony. | Human theologian |
| 8 | Justification apart from the Law | Critical | 13:38-39; 15:1-11,19-21; 18:18; 21:17-26; 24:14-16 | 称义/恩典 must retain full force against 功德/阴德 merit-accounting; circumcision debate must retain full doctrinal stakes, not reduce to cultural custom; Paul’s own vow (18:18; 21:23-26) must not reintroduce law-merit into justification. | Human theologian |
| 9 | The Great Commission Fulfilled | Medium | 1:8; 8:4,40; 13:1-3,47; 14:21; 16:6-10; 18:1-19:41 (missionary journeys); 26:16-18; 28:30-31 | 直到地极 must not echo 天下 (unified political dominion); this is message-spread, not territorial rule or foreign political import (洋教). | Native speaker review |
| 10 | Deity and Personhood of the Holy Spirit | Critical | 5:1-11; 13:2,4; 15:28; 16:6-7; 20:28; 21:11 | Ananias/Sapphira narrative (5:3-4) equates lying to the Spirit with lying to God — must not flatten to “breaking a community rule”; reinforces baseline’s ban on treating 圣灵 as one spirit-being among folk spirits. | Human theologian |
| 11 | Sonship and Deity of Christ in Acts | Critical | 2:36; 3:13-15; 4:10-12,27,30; 7:55-56; 9:20; 13:32-33 | 人子 must carry full divine-authority weight, not “a man’s son”; 圣洁公义的一位 doubles baseline cautions on 圣洁 and 义 — Christ’s own intrinsic character, not cultivated virtue. | Human theologian |
| 12 | Resurrection of Christ in Acts | Critical | 1:3,22; 2:24-32; 3:15,26; 4:2,10,33; 5:30; 10:40-41; 13:30-37; 17:18,31-32; 23:6-8; 24:15,21; 25:19; 26:8,23 | 复活 must never be 轮回/投胎/还魂; Acts repeatedly stages resurrection as contested (Athens, Sadducees) — Mandarin rendering must stay consistently bodily/historical/once-for-all across every occurrence. | Human theologian |
| 13 | Ascension and Enthronement of Christ | High | 1:9-11; 2:33-36; 3:21; 5:31; 7:55-56 | 被接上升 must not assimilate to Daoist immortal-ascension-through-cultivation (成仙升天); exaltation of the unique divine Son, not an adept’s reward. | Human theologian |
| 14 | Divine Sovereignty and Providence in Mission | High | 1:7,24-26; 2:23; 4:27-28; 13:48; 16:6-10; 18:9-10; 20:22-23; 21:11,14; 23:11; 27:21-25,31,34 | 神预定的计划和先见 must stay distinct from impersonal 天意/命运; God’s specific purposive plan directs both cross and mission, not cosmic inevitability. Lot-casting (1:26) must not become a normative divinatory method (求签). | Human theologian |
| 15 | False Religion and Counterfeit Spiritual Power | Critical | 8:9-24; 13:6-12; 14:8-18; 16:16-18; 17:16-31; 19:11-20,23-41; 28:1-6 | 邪术 must consistently mark condemned power vs. 神的大能; human-deification pattern (Zeus/Hermes; “they thought he was a god”) strongly resonates with Chinese 人成神 apotheosis tradition (Guan Gong, Mazu) — apostles’ refusal of worship must be preserved with full force. | Human theologian |
| 16 | Lordship Confession and Salvation by Faith | Critical | 2:21,36,38; 4:12; 10:36,43; 13:38-39; 16:30-34 | 求告主名/因信得救 are universal-scope passages — 凡/所有 must stay fully unqualified; 主 must never soften toward 老爷/主人. Household salvation (16:31,34) must not imply automatic collective salvation apart from individual faith. | Human theologian |
| 17 | Unity of Jews and Gentiles | High | 10:1-11:18; 15:1-29; 21:17-26 | Must resist Hua-Yi (华夷) civilized-insider/outsider echo; Jerusalem Council must read as theological settlement, not diplomatic compromise. | Human theologian |
| 18 | Fulfillment of Prophecy in Acts | High | 1:16,20; 2:16-21,25-31,34-35; 3:18,22-25; 4:11,25-26; 7:37,42,48-50; 8:32-35; 13:32-37,40-41; 15:15-18; 26:22-23,27 | 末后的日子 risks absorption into 末世 date-setting new religious movement vocabulary; Peter’s usage anchors an already-inaugurated era, not a countdown. | Human theologian |
| 19 | Prayer and the Holy Spirit’s Guidance | Medium | 1:14,24-26; 4:24-31; 6:4,6; 9:11,40; 10:2,4,9,30-31; 12:5,12; 13:1-3; 14:23; 16:13,16,25; 20:36; 21:5; 27:35; 28:8 | 抽签 (1:26) shares its verb with temple fortune-stick drawing (求签); must teach as bounded one-time providential trust, superseded by direct Spirit-guidance from ch.13 onward. | Native speaker review |
Part B — Full-Book Chapter Coverage Log
Per the PRD full-coverage mandate, every chapter of Acts is logged below with the doctrines it activates from the Part A matrix. No chapter is silently omitted; every chapter in this book contributes load-bearing content to at least one registry doctrine, so none require a “no new content” notation — each entry below documents that the chapter has been explicitly reviewed and its contribution recorded.
| Ch. | Doctrines Activated | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Commission Fulfilled (1:8); Ascension and Enthronement of Christ (1:9-11); Divine Sovereignty and Providence in Mission (1:7, election of Matthias 1:24-26); Prayer and the Holy Spirit’s Guidance (1:14, casting lots 1:26) | Reviewed. Foundational scene-setting chapter; casting lots flagged as bounded/non-normative. |
| 2 | Holy Spirit and Pentecost (core passage, 2:1-4,17-18,33); Repentance and Baptism (2:37-41); Lordship Confession and Salvation by Faith (2:21,36,38); Fulfillment of Prophecy in Acts (2:16-21,25-31,34-35); The Church as Community (2:42-47) | Reviewed. Theological anchor of the curriculum; highest-density chapter. |
| 3 | Sonship and Deity of Christ in Acts (3:13-15, Holy and Righteous One, Author of Life); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (3:1-10); Fulfillment of Prophecy in Acts (3:18,22-25); Repentance and Baptism (3:19, referenced) | Reviewed. |
| 4 | Persecution and Bold Witness (4:1-31); The Church as Community (4:32-37); Divine Sovereignty and Providence in Mission (4:27-28); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (4:29-31,33); Fulfillment of Prophecy (4:11,25-26) | Reviewed. |
| 5 | Deity and Personhood of the Holy Spirit (5:1-11); Persecution and Bold Witness (5:17-42); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (5:12-16) | Reviewed. |
| 6 | The Church as Community (6:1-7, serve tables, choosing the Seven); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (6:6, laying on of hands) | Reviewed. |
| 7 | Sonship and Deity of Christ in Acts (7:55-56, Son of Man vision); Persecution and Bold Witness (7:54-8:1, Stephen’s martyrdom); Fulfillment of Prophecy in Acts (7:37,42,48-50, Stephen’s historical speech) | Reviewed. |
| 8 | False Religion and Counterfeit Spiritual Power (8:9-24, Simon Magus); The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (8:4-25 Samaria; 8:26-40 Ethiopian eunuch); Repentance and Baptism (8:12-13,36-38); Holy Spirit and Pentecost (8:14-17); Persecution and Bold Witness (8:1-3) | Reviewed. |
| 9 | Conversion of Paul (9:1-19); Repentance and Baptism (9:18); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (9:32-42, Peter’s healings/raising Tabitha) | Reviewed. “The Way” (9:2) enters the narrative here. |
| 10 | The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (10:1-48); Unity of Jews and Gentiles (10:1-48); Lordship Confession and Salvation by Faith (10:36,43); Holy Spirit and Pentecost (10:44-47, Gentile Pentecost) | Reviewed. |
| 11 | Unity of Jews and Gentiles (11:1-18); The Church as Community (11:19-26, Antioch, name “Christian” coined) | Reviewed. |
| 12 | Persecution and Bold Witness (12:1-19, James martyred, Peter imprisoned/delivered); Prayer and the Holy Spirit’s Guidance (12:5,12); Divine Sovereignty and Providence in Mission (angelic deliverance) | Reviewed. |
| 13 | Justification apart from the Law (13:38-39); Divine Sovereignty and Providence in Mission (13:48, foreordained to eternal life); False Religion and Counterfeit Spiritual Power (13:6-12, Bar-Jesus); Fulfillment of Prophecy in Acts (13:32-37,40-41); The Great Commission Fulfilled (13:1-3, Antioch commissioning) | Reviewed. |
| 14 | False Religion and Counterfeit Spiritual Power (14:8-18, Zeus and Hermes at Lystra); Persecution and Bold Witness (14:19-22); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (14:3,8-10) | Reviewed. |
| 15 | Justification apart from the Law (15:1-11,19-21, Jerusalem Council); Unity of Jews and Gentiles (15:1-29); The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (15:7-9) | Reviewed. |
| 16 | Lordship Confession and Salvation by Faith (16:30-34, Philippian jailer, household salvation); False Religion and Counterfeit Spiritual Power (16:16-18, spirit of divination); Divine Sovereignty and Providence in Mission (16:6-10, Macedonian call); Persecution and Bold Witness (16:19-24,37-39) | Reviewed. |
| 17 | False Religion and Counterfeit Spiritual Power (17:16-31, Areopagus, unknown god); Resurrection of Christ in Acts (17:18,31-32, mocked at Athens); Fulfillment of Prophecy in Acts (17:2-3) | Reviewed. |
| 18 | The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (18:1-11,19); Justification apart from the Law (18:18, Paul’s vow, cross-referenced with ch.21); The Church as Community (18:24-28, Apollos) | Reviewed. |
| 19 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles (19:11-20, healing, sons of Sceva); False Religion and Counterfeit Spiritual Power (19:19, magic books burned; 19:23-41, Artemis riot); Holy Spirit and Pentecost (19:1-6, Ephesian disciples) | Reviewed. |
| 20 | The Church as Community (20:17-38, Ephesian elders’ farewell); Persecution and Bold Witness (20:22-24, anticipated suffering); Prayer and the Holy Spirit’s Guidance (20:36) | Reviewed. |
| 21 | Justification apart from the Law (21:17-26, Paul’s Nazirite-style vow and temple purification); Persecution and Bold Witness (21:27-36, arrest in the temple); Divine Sovereignty and Providence in Mission (21:11,14, Agabus’s prophecy and submission) | Reviewed. |
| 22 | Conversion of Paul (22:3-21, second retelling); Persecution and Bold Witness (22:22-29, Roman citizenship invoked) | Reviewed. |
| 23 | Resurrection of Christ in Acts (23:6-8, Sadducee/Pharisee dispute); Persecution and Bold Witness (23:1-35, Sanhedrin plot, Roman protection); Divine Sovereignty and Providence in Mission (23:11) | Reviewed. |
| 24 | Justification apart from the Law (24:14-16, defense of “the Way”; 24:25, judgment to come); Resurrection of Christ in Acts (24:15,21); Persecution and Bold Witness (24:1-27, Felix hearing) | Reviewed. |
| 25 | Persecution and Bold Witness (25:1-12, appeal to Caesar); Divine Sovereignty and Providence in Mission (25:19, judicial providence) | Reviewed. |
| 26 | Conversion of Paul (26:9-23, third retelling); Resurrection of Christ in Acts (26:8,23); Fulfillment of Prophecy in Acts (26:22-23,27); Divine Sovereignty and Providence in Mission (26:16-18, heavenly vision, foreordained mission) | Reviewed. |
| 27 | Divine Sovereignty and Providence in Mission (27:21-25,31,34, angelic reassurance in the storm); Prayer and the Holy Spirit’s Guidance (27:35, thanksgiving) | Reviewed. |
| 28 | The Great Commission Fulfilled (28:30-31, “unhindered”); False Religion and Counterfeit Spiritual Power (28:1-6, viper, “they thought he was a god” at Malta); The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (28:17-28, final address to Rome’s Jews, turning to Gentiles); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (28:7-10, healing on Malta) | Reviewed. Book’s climactic chapter; triumphant open advance of the gospel despite Paul’s custody. |
Part C — Summary Statistics (Reconciled with Registry)
| Risk Tier | Count | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 9 | Human theologian (all) |
| High | 8 | Human theologian (all) |
| Medium | 2 | Native speaker review (both) |
| Low | 0 | — |
| Total | 19 | 17 theologian / 2 native speaker |
This reconciles exactly with assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json’s risk_summary block. No doctrine, tier, or routing decision in this document departs from the registry; Part A restates it with full-book passage expansion, and Part B demonstrates that expansion is traceable to every one of Acts’ 28 chapters.
See 08_core_glossary.md for term-level detail underlying each doctrine’s translation risk, and assets/translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json (baseline) for governing term renderings reused throughout.
Critical Risk Doctrines
The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Mandarin name: 圣灵与五旬节
Key terms: holy_spirit, pentecost, wind_of_the_spirit, tongues_of_fire, filled_with_the_holy_spirit, tongues_other_languages, gift_of_the_holy_spirit, pour_out_the_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
被圣灵充满 (filled with the Holy Spirit) directly borders the accepted Chinese folk-religious category of mediumistic spirit-possession (被灵附身/附体), in which a medium (灵媒/童乩) is entered by a spirit in a trance to speak or act on its behalf; if not carefully taught, Pentecost could be absorbed into this existing cultural category rather than understood as the personal, benevolent indwelling of the one true divine Spirit given to willing believers for coherent, intelligible witness. The accompanying wind (风) and fire imagery further risk collision with 气 (qì, already forbidden for God’s power in the baseline) and with ritual incense-fire associations.
Repentance and Baptism
Mandarin name: 悔改与受洗
Key terms: repent, baptize, forgiveness_of_sins, gift_of_the_holy_spirit, cut_to_the_heart
Review routing: Human theologian
悔改 must never be replaced with the Buddhist ritual-confession term 忏悔 (chànhuǐ), which reduces repentance to a technique for lessening karmic consequence rather than a Spirit-enabled turning to God inseparable from faith in Christ. 受洗/洗礼 must not be read as a generic ritual-purification bath removing ordinary ceremonial defilement (a category familiar from folk practice); Acts also contains three distinguishable baptisms (John’s, Christian, and Spirit-baptism) that must not be collapsed into one generic washing rite.
Conversion of Paul
Mandarin name: 保罗的归信
Key terms: the_way, heavenly_vision, called, calling
Review routing: Human theologian
这道 (the Way), Paul’s self-designation both before and after his conversion, risks being absorbed into Daoist metaphysical vocabulary (道) or heard as merely one philosophical path among several equally valid options; every occurrence must anchor ‘the Way’ as exclusive allegiance to the risen, exclusive Lord Jesus, not an impersonal cosmic principle. Paul’s encounter must be taught as a specific, personal Christophany, not a generic mystical-light testimony common to many religious genres.
Justification apart from the Law
Mandarin name: 在律法以外因信称义
Key terms: justification, grace, law, yoke, faith, vow, judgment_to_come
Review routing: Human theologian
称义 and 恩典 must retain full force against the Buddhist merit-accounting worldview (功德, 阴德); this is the narrative hinge where the Jerusalem Council formally rules salvation is through grace by faith, not law-keeping or circumcision — circumcision must not be presented as merely a cultural custom without conveying the full doctrinal stakes at issue. Paul’s own later voluntary vow (18:18; 21:23-26) must not be misread as reintroducing law-merit into his justification, distinct from the transactional bargain implied by 许愿 in folk usage.
Deity and Personhood of the Holy Spirit
Mandarin name: 圣灵的神性与位格
Key terms: holy_spirit, lying_to_the_holy_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
Peter’s rebuke equating lying to the Holy Spirit with lying to God himself (5:3-4) is a direct narrative assertion of the Spirit’s full personhood and deity; translation must not flatten this into merely ‘breaking a community rule’ or ‘deceiving the group,’ which would strip the passage of its doctrinal weight regarding the Spirit’s divine personhood — reinforcing the baseline’s Critical-tier caution against treating 圣灵 as one spirit-being among the folk-religious spirit world.
Sonship and Deity of Christ in Acts
Mandarin name: 基督在使徒行传中的儿子名分与神性
Key terms: son_of_man, holy_and_righteous_one, son_of_god, author_of_life, holy_one
Review routing: Human theologian
人子 (Son of Man) must never be flattened to a generic ‘a man’s son’ reading; it carries the same divine-authority weight as 神的儿子. 圣洁公义的一位 doubles the baseline’s existing cautions on 圣洁 (not ritual/meditative purity) and 义 (not the Confucian social virtue) — both together describe Christ’s own intrinsic divine character, not an achieved or cultivated state.
Resurrection of Christ in Acts
Mandarin name: 使徒行传中基督的复活
Key terms: resurrection
Review routing: Human theologian
复活 must never be rendered with 轮回 (reincarnation cycle), 投胎 (rebirth into a new womb), or 还魂 (folk ghost-story reanimation); Acts repeatedly stages the resurrection as a live point of controversy (mocked at Athens, disputed by Sadducees and Pharisees), so the Mandarin rendering must consistently preserve the bodily, historical, once-for-all sense across every occurrence to prevent readers from resolving the controversy toward a cyclical-rebirth reading already present in their own cultural framework.
False Religion and Counterfeit Spiritual Power
Mandarin name: 假宗教与虚假的灵力
Key terms: sorcery, spirit_of_divination, zeus_and_hermes, unknown_god, artemis, deification_of_men, areopagus
Review routing: Human theologian
邪术 must be used consistently to mark condemned, false spiritual power, sharply distinguished from 神的大能; Chinese folk religion’s accepted category of ritual practitioners (法术) may not automatically register these as evil without explicit teaching. The human-deification pattern at Lystra and Malta (Zeus/Hermes; ‘they thought he was a god’) has strong resonance with the Chinese historical practice of apotheosizing extraordinary humans (人成神, e.g. Guan Gong, Mazu); the apostles’ explicit refusal of worship must be preserved with full force so as not to invite an unintended positive parallel.
Lordship Confession and Salvation by Faith
Mandarin name: 认主为主与因信得救
Key terms: lord, salvation, faith, call_on_the_name_of_the_lord, household_salvation
Review routing: Human theologian
求告主名 and 因信…得救 are key universal_scope_of_gospel passages (cf. baseline doctrine); ‘everyone/whoever’ (凡/所有) must remain fully unqualified in Mandarin, resisting any softened or graded reading, and 主 must never be softened toward a feudal honorific (老爷) or ordinary master-servant relation (主人), consistent with the baseline’s Critical lordship_of_christ entry. Household-salvation language (16:31, 34) must not imply automatic collective salvation apart from each member’s own faith, guarding against the Chinese cultural expectation that religious identity is a family-unit/lineage matter.
High Risk Doctrines
The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Mandarin name: 福音传给犹太人和外邦人
Key terms: gentiles, god_fearer, clean_unclean, no_partiality, proselyte, synagogue
Review routing: Human theologian
The abolition of ceremonial food distinctions (俗物/洁净) risks being read through the lens of ongoing Chinese folk dietary-purity or merit practices (e.g. 斋戒吃素积德) rather than as the removal of a specific old-covenant barrier between Jew and Gentile; 不偏待人 must resist any residual Hua-Yi (华夷) civilized-insider/outsider framing already flagged in the baseline’s gentiles entry.
The Church as Community
Mandarin name: 教会作为群体
Key terms: church, held_all_things_in_common, fellowship, elder_overseer_shepherd, serve_tables, added_to_the_number, christian
Review routing: Human theologian
凡物公用 risks being read through 20th-century Chinese political-economic vocabulary (公有, collectivization), which is heavily freighted in recent national history; teaching must make explicit this is voluntary, Spirit-motivated, local generosity, not a mandate for collective property ownership or an anticipation of any political-economic ideology.
Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Mandarin name: 使徒的权柄与神迹
Key terms: power_of_god, signs_and_wonders, laying_on_of_hands, sorcery, angel_of_the_lord
Review routing: Human theologian
神迹奇事 performed by the apostles must be sharply distinguished from 邪术 (condemned sorcery) and from the broader Chinese folk category of accepted ritual practitioners performing 法术 for healing or fortune; 按手 must never be presented as a transferable, purchasable power, directly following Simon’s attempted purchase of the Spirit’s gift in Acts 8.
Persecution and Bold Witness
Mandarin name: 受迫害与放胆作见证
Key terms: boldness, persecution, witness, sanhedrin, roman_citizen, appeal_to_caesar
Review routing: Human theologian
放胆 must not be rendered with a term connoting reckless insubordination (莽撞); this is Spirit-produced confidence, not natural bravado. 逼迫 must retain its specific sense of hostility directed at someone because of Christian faith, distinct from generic suffering/hardship (苦难) or impersonal misfortune.
Ascension and Enthronement of Christ
Mandarin name: 基督的升天与被高举
Key terms: ascension, exalted
Review routing: Human theologian
被接上升 must not be assimilated to Daoist/folk-religious accounts of a sage or immortal’s bodily ascent to the heavens after attaining the Dao through cultivation (成仙升天); Christ’s ascension is the exaltation of the unique divine Son to the Father’s right hand, not the reward of an adept’s spiritual attainment or a worldly rank-promotion.
Divine Sovereignty and Providence in Mission
Mandarin name: 神在宣教中的护理与主权
Key terms: providence, definite_plan_and_foreknowledge, election, foreordained_to_eternal_life, casting_lots
Review routing: Human theologian
神预定的计划和先见 must be kept distinct from the impersonal fatalistic 天意 (‘heaven’s intention’) already forbidden under the baseline’s providence entry; God’s specific, purposive plan directing both the cross and the church’s missionary expansion is personal sovereign action, not cosmic inevitability or destiny (命运). The apostles’ one-time use of casting lots (抽签, 1:26) must not be generalized into a normative divinatory decision-method resembling temple fortune-stick practice (求签).
Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Mandarin name: 犹太人与外邦人的合一
Key terms: gentiles, clean_unclean, no_partiality
Review routing: Human theologian
Directly extends the baseline’s unity_of_jews_and_gentiles doctrine; must resist any framing that echoes the classical Hua-Yi (华夷) civilized-insider/outsider distinction, and must not present the Jerusalem Council’s decision as a diplomatic compromise rather than a theological settlement of the gospel’s terms.
Fulfillment of Prophecy in Acts
Mandarin name: 使徒行传中预言的应验
Key terms: prophet, prophecy, last_days, day_of_the_lord, promise
Review routing: Human theologian
末后的日子 risks being absorbed into the vocabulary of Chinese apocalyptic/millenarian new religious movements (末世) known for date-setting and crisis manipulation; Peter’s use anchors ‘the last days’ as an already-inaugurated era beginning at Pentecost, not a still-future countdown, and this distinction must be preserved in translation and teaching.
Medium Risk Doctrines
The Great Commission Fulfilled
Mandarin name: 大使命的实现
Key terms: to_the_end_of_the_earth, mission, unhindered, kingdom_of_god
Review routing: Native speaker review
直到地极 must not echo 天下 (‘all under heaven’), the classical Chinese political ideal of a unified earthly realm under one ruler, already forbidden under the baseline’s kingdom_of_god entry; this is the spread of a saving message to every nation, not territorial dominion or a foreign political import (洋教).
Prayer and the Holy Spirit’s Guidance
Mandarin name: 祷告与圣灵的引导
Key terms: intercession, holy_spirit, casting_lots
Review routing: Native speaker review
抽签 (casting lots, 1:26) is the same verb used for drawing a temple fortune-stick (求签); must be taught as a bounded, one-time act of trust in God’s providence rather than a normative divinatory method — note the church shifts to direct Spirit-guidance from Acts 13 onward, never repeating lot-casting as a decision procedure.
Referenced passages