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 | 11 | Human theologian, every occurrence | Salvation, Prayer and Intercession, Incarnation, Deity of Christ, Sonship of Christ, Resurrection of Christ, Lordship of Christ, Adoption, Assurance of Salvation |
| High | 17 | Human theologian | Gospel, Apostleship, Grace, Faith, Evangelism, Church as God’s People, Universal Scope of the Gospel |
| Medium | 10 | Native speaker review | Divine Calling, Sainthood, Peace with God, Spiritual Gifts, Kingdom Mission |
| Low | 2 | Automated review only | Thanksgiving, Mutual Edification |
Why Critical doctrines cluster where they do
Persian’s eleven Critical-risk doctrines fall into two distinct clusters. The first (Incarnation, Deity, Sonship, Resurrection, Lordship of Christ) traces to the same tawhid objection shared with Arabic and Sunni Islam generally. The second, more distinctly Persian cluster (Salvation, Prayer and Intercession, Adoption, Assurance of Salvation) traces to Twelver Shia Islam’s own highly developed popular devotional and legal categories - Karbala martyrdom-intercession, Iran’s civil-law restriction on adoption, and a deeds-weighing framework reinforced by both Islamic and pre-Islamic Zoroastrian sources. This second cluster has no equivalent weight in Sunni-majority Arabic contexts and is the primary reason Persian’s Critical count (11) exceeds Arabic’s (10) despite a smaller overall doctrine set difference.
Review routing rationale
Critical and High risk doctrines (28 of 40) require mandatory human theologian review because an automated or native-speaker-only check could confirm the Persian is fluent and even devotionally resonant without catching that it has been absorbed into an adjacent but categorically distinct Shia devotional framework. Native speaker review is sufficient for Medium-risk doctrines, where the concern is scope, register, or real-world safety judgment rather than doctrinal contradiction.
Critical Risk Doctrines
Adoption into God’s Family
Persian name: فرزندخواندگی در خانواده خدا
Key terms: adoption, spirit of adoption, sons, children of God, abba
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Iranian civil law itself uses the weaker sarparasti (custodianship) rather than full adoption terminology, reflecting the same Quranic restriction (33:4-5) found across Sunni and Shia fiqh. Romans 8’s full inheritance must be taught against this real, current legal default.
Assurance of Salvation
Persian name: اطمینان از نجات
Key terms: nothing can separate, who shall separate, no condemnation, more than conquerors
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: mainstream Islamic piety treats certainty of one’s own final salvation as presumptuous given the deeds-weighing framework; Romans 8’s assurance, grounded in God’s unchanging character, runs directly against this default and must be taught deliberately.
Deity of Christ
Persian name: الوهیت مسیح
Key terms: son of God, declared son, God over all
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: co-equal divine nature, the paradigm case of shirk from a tawhid standpoint shared by Persian Shia Islam. Must not be softened to ‘a great and honored man.‘
Incarnation
Persian name: تجسد
Key terms: flesh, seed of David, son born, came in flesh
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: shares Arabic’s tawhid objection. Zoroastrianism’s own emanationist cosmology (Ahura Mazda’s intermediary Amesha Spentas) creates a secondary risk of the Incarnation being imagined as one more intermediary-being emanation rather than the singular, full assumption of human nature by the eternal Son.
Lordship of Christ
Persian name: خداوندی مسیح
Key terms: lord, lord jesus, jesus is lord
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Khodavand is a native pre-Islamic word rather than a Quranic title, so the collision is less about borrowing sacred vocabulary and more about the core tawhid objection to ascribing supreme Lordship to a human-born man.
Messianic Promise
Persian name: وعده مسیحایی
Key terms: messiah, christ, anointed, promised
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: beyond the shared Quranic Masih content, popular Shia messianic expectation centers on the Hidden Twelfth Imam (Mahdi), with Isa in a secondary role at his return. Christ’s own primary redemptive sufficiency must be actively asserted, not displaced.
Obedience of Faith
Persian name: اطاعت ایمانی
Key terms: obedience of faith, obedience, faith-produced obedience
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: submission/obedience is the defining category of the surrounding Islamic religious culture, shared fully by Persian Shia Islam; must be taught consistently as fruit, never ground, of right standing.
Prayer and Intercession
Persian name: دعا و شفاعت
Key terms: prayer, intercession, pray, groan, spirit intercedes
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: shafa’at is unusually central and popularly practiced in Twelver Shia devotion (Muharram mourning rituals, shrine pilgrimage seeking the Imams’ intercession). Christ’s intercession must be taught as exclusive and complete, directly engaging this popularly central category.
Resurrection of Christ
Persian name: قیامت مسیح
Key terms: raised, resurrection, from the dead, raised from death
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: shares the Quran’s crucifixion-denial (4:157) with Arabic; Shia eschatology’s Mahdi-centered expectation further subordinates Jesus’s own resurrection and return to a supporting role at the Hidden Imam’s reappearance.
Salvation
Persian name: نجات
Key terms: salvation, saved, save, deliverance
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: beyond the shared deeds-weighing (mizan) framework, popular Shia piety’s Karbala/Hussein martyrdom-intercession devotion offers a superficially similar but categorically distinct pattern (an innocent holy figure’s suffering benefiting those who honor it) that must be carefully distinguished from Christ’s unique, sufficient atonement.
Sonship of Christ
Persian name: پسر خدا بودن مسیح
Key terms: son of God, his son, God’s son
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: the Hezare No Persian NT translation’s softened ‘God’s Chosen One’ rendering, which provoked significant backlash within Iranian Protestant circles, is a documented cautionary precedent; this doctrine must be taught using the literal, historically established پسر خدا.
High Risk Doctrines
Apostleship
Persian name: رسالت حواریون
Key terms: apostle
Review routing: Human theologian
Collides with Muhammad’s rasul title as in Arabic, with an added Shia dimension: the Imamate’s claim to unique ongoing authoritative succession can implicitly compete with any claim to authoritative apostolic office.
Christian Identity in Christ
Persian name: هویت مسیحی در مسیح
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, distinct from national, ethnic, or religious identity markers that carry unusually high personal and social cost to depart from in the Iranian context.
Church as God’s People
Persian name: کلیسا به عنوان قوم خدا
Key terms: body of Christ, one body, church, saints, assembly
Review routing: Human theologian
New covenant community, not primarily a physical building - Persian-language congregational worship for Muslim-background believers is heavily restricted in Iran, so this doctrine must be taught with the underground house-church reality in view.
Davidic Covenant
Persian name: عهد داوودی
Key terms: seed of David, David, covenant
Review routing: Human theologian
Davud is a shared, positively-regarded Quranic prophet-king, but without the covenant-king typology pointing forward to a promised messianic heir; this background must be taught, not assumed.
Effectual Calling
Persian name: دعوت مؤثر
Key terms: called, calling, election, chosen
Review routing: Human theologian
Shia Islam’s Imamate doctrine of specific divine appointment can serve as a bridge concept, but its lineage-based, ongoing-office content must not be imported onto Romans 9’s election to salvation through faith.
Evangelism
Persian name: بشارت انجیل
Key terms: preach, proclaim, evangelize, send, how will they hear
Review routing: Human theologian
Evangelism directed at Muslim-background Iranians carries serious real legal and social risk under apostasy norms; language of witness and proclamation must be handled with full awareness of the safety stakes for both speaker and hearer in the underground house-church context.
Faith
Persian name: ایمان
Key terms: faith, believe, belief, trust
Review routing: Human theologian
Persian Shia iman includes belief in the Imamate as a core article; must be anchored as personal trust in Christ specifically, not creedal assent to a succession doctrine.
Fulfillment of Prophecy
Persian name: تحقق نبوت
Key terms: prophecy, promised, foretold, scriptures say
Review routing: Human theologian
Naskh (abrogation) doctrine, shared across Sunni and Shia Islam, treats later revelation as superseding earlier revelation; Romans’ fulfillment argument needs deliberate framing against this default.
Gospel
Persian name: انجیل
Key terms: gospel, good news
Review routing: Human theologian
Must be taught as the NT record itself, not conceded as a corrupted successor to a lost original revelation, per the tahrif assumption shared across the Persian-Islamic world.
Grace
Persian name: فیض
Key terms: grace, unmerited, gift, given freely
Review routing: Human theologian
Feyz’s Persian philosophical loading (divine emanation, an automatic ontological overflow) must be corrected toward a freely willed, personal gift secured through Christ, apart from merit.
Humanity of Christ
Persian name: بشریت مسیح
Key terms: born of the seed of David, flesh, human
Review routing: Human theologian
Real, physical human nature - not an illusion. Shares the Quran’s own crucifixion-denial (‘shubbiha lahum’) language risk with Arabic, which could be misapplied to Christ’s humanity generally.
Inspiration of Scripture
Persian name: الهام کتاب مقدس
Key terms: scriptures, holy scriptures, prophets
Review routing: Human theologian
Islamic wahy denotes verbatim divine dictation; biblical inspiration is God moving human authors to write in their own voice. Also intersects with the tahrif claim regarding prior scriptures.
Sanctification
Persian name: تقدیس
Key terms: sanctification, holiness, set apart, holy living
Review routing: Human theologian
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy, not ritual purification.
Separation unto God’s Service
Persian name: جدایی برای خدمت خدا
Key terms: set apart, separated, holy
Review routing: Human theologian
Must not be confused with Sufi zuhd (world-renunciation) practiced in Persian mystical tradition; biblical separation is devoted engagement with the world, not withdrawal from it.
Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Persian name: اتحاد یهودیان و غیریهودیان
Key terms: Jew and Gentile, no distinction, one body, olive tree
Review routing: Human theologian
Requires careful pastoral framing given Iran’s officially propagandized anti-Israel political stance; Romans 9-11’s redemptive-historical argument must not be flattened into or read as commentary on present state politics.
Universal Human Accountability
Persian name: مسئولیت جهانی انسان
Key terms: all have sinned, no one is righteous, no distinction, all are accountable
Review routing: Human theologian
Islamic fitrah doctrine and Zoroastrianism’s own Chinvat Bridge deeds-weighing independently reinforce a strong Persian cultural default toward innate goodness balanced against deeds, rather than inherited guilt in Adam.
Universal Scope of the Gospel
Persian name: شمول جهانی انجیل
Key terms: everyone who believes, all who call, no distinction, Jew and Gentile
Review routing: Human theologian
Must be framed so as not to be heard as religious pluralism claiming all paths are equally valid, while retaining the full inclusive force of the text.
Medium Risk Doctrines
Christ-Centered Ministry
Persian name: خدمت مسیح-محور
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 for his glory; also carries real security considerations for house-church leaders operating outside legal recognition.
Christian Fellowship
Persian name: مشارکت مسیحی
Key terms: fellowship, share, participate, community
Review routing: Native speaker review
Shared participation in Christ; note the root-resonance between mosharekat and shirk (idolatrous partnership), inherited into Persian via Arabic.
Divine Calling
Persian name: دعوت الهی
Key terms: called, calling
Review routing: Native speaker review
Persian da’vat is genuinely everyday invitation-vocabulary, less exclusively religious-missionary than Arabic da’wah; still needs the direction of address (God calling a person) made explicit.
Kingdom Mission
Persian name: ماموریت ملکوت
Key terms: kingdom of God, righteousness peace and joy, advance the kingdom
Review routing: Native speaker review
God’s spiritual reign advancing through the gospel, distinct from Iran’s own explicitly religious-political state structure (Velayat-e Faqih).
Mission to the Nations
Persian name: ماموریت به سوی ملتها
Key terms: nations, gentiles, all peoples, to the ends of the earth
Review routing: Native speaker review
Avoid resalat (prophetic-commission) vocabulary that invites comparison to Muhammad’s own resalat; open evangelism also carries real legal risk under Iran’s restrictions on Muslim-background conversion.
Peace with God
Persian name: صلح با خدا
Key terms: peace with God, peace, peace through justification
Review routing: Native speaker review
Relational, legal peace secured through justification - not the secular wellness-culture ‘aramesh’ sense of stress relief or mindfulness.
Power of God for Salvation
Persian name: قدرت خدا برای نجات
Key terms: power of God, God’s power
Review routing: Native speaker review
Broadly compatible concept; low independent collision risk beyond standard care.
Providence
Persian name: تدبیر الهی
Key terms: all things work together, God works, foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified
Review routing: Native speaker review
God’s personal, purposive care; keep distinct from folk qadar fatalism.
Sainthood (Called to be Holy)
Persian name: قدوسیت مؤمنان
Key terms: saints, holy ones, called to be holy
Review routing: Native speaker review
Corporate sense for all believers, not an ascetic or shrine-venerated elite class.
Spiritual Gifts
Persian name: عطایای روحانی
Key terms: spiritual gift, gift, grace gift, measure of faith
Review routing: Native speaker review
Must retain the ‘spiritual’ qualifier so it is not read as ordinary talent.
Low Risk Doctrines
Mutual Edification
Persian name: بنای متقابل
Key terms: build up, edify, encourage one another, strengthen
Review routing: Automated review
Building one another up in faith; no significant doctrinal risk.
Thanksgiving
Persian name: شکرگزاری
Key terms: thanksgiving, give thanks, grateful, thank God
Review routing: Automated review
Shukr is also a major Islamic virtue; broadly compatible, low risk.
Referenced passages