Doctrine Analysis
Doctrine Analysis — Acts 1–28
English → Portuguese | Core Passage: Acts 2:1–41
Curriculum: Acts
Status: Full-book doctrine matrix. This document is CONSISTENT with doctrine_risk_registry.json (version 1): same 22 doctrines, same risk tiers, same review routing. It adds full-book, chapter-by-chapter coverage so that no chapter of Acts is silently omitted from analysis, per PRD Phase 1 full-coverage mandate. Acts 2:1–41 (Pentecost) is the theological anchor of the curriculum, not its scope boundary.
Part A — Doctrine Matrix (22 Doctrines, Full Book)
| # | Doctrine | Risk | Key Supporting Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk (grounded reason) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Holy Spirit and Pentecost | Critical | 1:4-5; 1:8; 2:1-4; 2:17-18; 2:33; 2:38; 4:8; 4:31; 8:15-17; 10:44-46; 11:15-17; 13:2,9; 19:1-6 | Pentecost’s personal, sovereign, once-for-all-inaugurated outpouring and every subsequent Spirit-filling sit directly beside mainstream Brazilian Kardecist and Umbanda/Candomblé vocabulary for incorporação and possessão mediúnica. Brazil hosts the world’s largest Spiritist population and one of the largest Afro-diasporic religious populations; this collision recurs on nearly every Pentecost-adjacent verse. | Human theologian |
| 2 | The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | High | 1:8; 10:1-48; 11:1-18; 13:46-48; 14:27; 15:7-11; 17:16-31; 28:28 | Peter’s vision and Cornelius’s household establish that the gospel excludes no ethnic group. Brazil’s own history of racial/social stratification (rooted in the largest colonial slaveholding system in the Americas) gives “God shows no partiality” direct social weight, not merely abstract doctrine. | Human theologian |
| 3 | Repentance and Baptism | Critical | 2:37-38; 3:19; 8:36-38; 9:18; 10:47-48; 16:31-33; 17:30; 19:4-5; 22:16; 26:20 | Peter’s altar-call formula (2:38) grants complete, immediate forgiveness upon decisive repentance and baptism in this life — the single sharpest available contrast with Kardecism’s reforma íntima, in which moral failure is a debt worked off gradually across reincarnations. Softening completeness/decisiveness collapses the doctrine into the very framework it confronts. | Human theologian |
| 4 | The Church as Community | Medium | 2:42-47; 4:32-35; 6:1-7; 11:19-26; 14:23; 20:17-28 | The gathered, mutually-committed local community must be distinguished from the capitalized institutional sense of “a Igreja” foregrounded in Catholic usage; voluntary generosity (4:32-35) must not be read as mandated communal property. | Native speaker review |
| 5 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | High | 2:43; 3:1-10; 4:29-31,33; 5:12-16; 6:8; 8:6-13; 14:3; 15:12; 19:11-12; 20:27 | Miracles are God’s authentication of his messengers exercised through delegated authority (“em nome de Jesus”), never a technique, formula, or purchasable power — sharply distinguished from feitiçaria/magia and Kardecist/Umbanda/Candomblé “fenômenos mediúnicos,” both mainstream Brazilian frameworks claiming comparable phenomena from a different source. | Human theologian |
| 6 | Persecution and Bold Witness | High | 4:1-31; 5:17-42; 7:54-8:3; 12:1-19; 13:50; 14:19; 16:19-24; 21:27-36 | Firsthand, historical, verifiable eyewitness “testemunha” endured under threat (and unto death for Stephen) must be distinguished from a subjective “testemunho espiritual” of inward mystical experience, a common framing in Brazilian charismatic-syncretic and Kardecist discourse. | Human theologian |
| 7 | Conversion of Paul | Critical | 9:1-19; 22:3-16; 26:9-18 | Christ’s commissioning words frame conversion as a decisive transfer from “the power of Satan” to God (26:18), a sharp two-kingdom dualism that must be preserved against any framework — Kardecist, Umbanda, or generally syncretistic — where spirits/forces are morally ambiguous or arranged along a single evolutionary continuum. | Human theologian |
| 8 | Justification apart from the Law | Critical | 10:1-48; 13:38-39; 15:1-11; 15:28-29; 16:3; 21:21-25 | The Jerusalem Council’s resolution (15:11) is Acts’ clearest single-verse statement that salvation is by grace through faith, not law-keeping, combining four already-Critical/High baseline terms (graça, salvação, Senhor, fé). Must read as unified with Romans, resisting both a Tridentine-adjacent merit reading and a Kardecist-adjacent gradual self-earned-merit reading. | Human theologian |
| 9 | The Great Commission Fulfilled | High | 1:8; 13:47; 28:28; 28:30-31 | Acts deliberately ends “unhindered” (ἀκωλύτως), inviting the reader into an ongoing task, not a tidy conclusion. This open-ended missionary momentum must be preserved, particularly given Brazil’s dual status as major mission-sending and mission-receiving field. | Native speaker review |
| 10 | Resurrection of Christ | Critical | 2:24-32; 3:15; 4:2,33; 13:30-37; 17:31-32; 23:6-8; 24:15,21; 26:23 | Peter’s Pentecost sermon and Paul’s later defenses repeatedly ground the gospel in Christ’s bodily, historical, once-for-all resurrection, explicitly denying his body saw corruption (2:27,31). Brazil’s mainstream, textually codified reincarnation belief makes this the single most vulnerable doctrine to lexical drift. “Ressurreição” must never approach “reencarnação.” | Human theologian |
| 11 | Lordship of Christ | Critical | 2:34-36; 10:36; 16:31; 28:31 | Acts 2:36 (“Deus o fez Senhor e Cristo”) is the climactic statement of Peter’s sermon; must retain exclusive, supreme lordship, not a devotional title held alongside spirit guides, orixás, or ancestor spirits as one venerated figure among several. | Human theologian |
| 12 | Deity and Sonship of Christ | Critical | 3:14; 7:56; 9:20; 13:33 | Titles applied to Jesus (Son of God, Son of Man, Holy and Righteous One) must convey co-equal divine nature, never softened toward Kardecism’s Christology of Jesus as “the most evolved spirit ever incarnated,” a model among many advancing spirits. | Human theologian |
| 13 | Messianic Promise | Critical | 2:29-31,36; 3:18-26; 8:35; 9:22; 17:2-3; 18:5,28; 26:22-23 | Peter’s and Paul’s repeated OT demonstrations that Jesus is “o Cristo” must remain the unique, exclusively-fulfilled promise, not softened toward Kardecism’s rival claim of Jesus as the most spiritually advanced of many evolving spirits. | Human theologian |
| 14 | Inspiration of Scripture | High | 1:16; 2:16-21; 4:25; 13:27; 15:15; 21:11; 28:25 | Apostolic proclamation is grounded in already-inspired, closed-canon Scripture and Spirit-consistent prophecy (e.g., Agabus, 21:11). Kardecism’s psicografia claims a directly rival, ongoing revelatory authority; the finality and uniqueness of apostolic-era revelation must be taught in explicit contrast. | Human theologian |
| 15 | Providence and the Sovereign Plan of God | High | 2:23; 4:28; 17:26-28; 27:22-25 | God’s personal, purposive plan behind Christ’s crucifixion and the ordering of the nations must not be assimilated to Kardecism’s impersonal “lei de causa e efeito,” a karma-like moral law governing a spirit’s progress across reincarnations. | Human theologian |
| 16 | Divine Calling and Election | High | 1:24-26; 9:15; 13:48; 22:14 | God’s sovereign, personal choice of Paul as a “chosen instrument” (9:15) and of “as many as were appointed to eternal life” (13:48) must not be softened into a merit-earned status accumulated across lifetimes, a reading Kardecist spiritual evolution would suggest by analogy. | Human theologian |
| 17 | Exclusivity of Salvation | Critical | 4:12; 16:31; 2:21; 10:43; 13:38-39 | Acts 4:12 is the single most exclusivist salvation claim in the New Testament, directly colliding with Brazilian religious pluralism’s typical affirmation of multiple valid spiritual paths, mediating spirits, saints, or orixás. Must be rendered with full, unqualified exclusivity. | Human theologian |
| 18 | Confrontation with Occult and Demonic Power | Critical | 8:9-24; 13:6-11; 16:16-18; 19:13-20 | Acts repeatedly narrates real but harmful occult power — sorcery, divination, spirit possession — genuinely defeated by Christ’s superior authority, never explained away as mere trickery. Arguably the single most directly relevant doctrinal cluster for Brazil, where divinatory mediumship, spirit consultation/incorporation, and folk-magical practice are mainstream and organized rather than fringe. | Human theologian |
| 19 | Idolatry and Exclusive Worship of God | High | 7:41; 14:11-18; 17:16,23,29; 19:26; 28:6 | Paul and Barnabas’s refusal of worship at Lystra and Paul’s Athens sermon confront polytheistic, image-based worship, with direct relevance to Afro-Brazilian religious imagery (orixá statues/altars) and folk-Catholic devotional image veneration. Must be taught with pastoral sensitivity but without softening exclusive monotheism. | Human theologian |
| 20 | Ascension and Exaltation of Christ | High | 1:9-11; 2:33-35 | Christ’s bodily, visible, historical, unrepeated ascension must be kept sharply distinct from Kardecist “desencarnação” (ordinary death) and subsequent migration through “planos espirituais” — a unique exaltation event, not everyone’s common post-mortem transition. | Human theologian |
| 21 | Universal Human Accountability and Future Judgment | High | 17:30-31; 24:15; 24:25 | Paul’s insistence on a single, decisive, future day of judgment by a personal Christ directly confronts Kardecism’s doctrine of accountability distributed and resolved gradually across many incarnations; this fixed, singular reckoning must retain unqualified, linear, one-time force. | Human theologian |
| 22 | Church Governance and Spirit-Filled Leadership | Medium | 6:1-7; 14:23; 20:17-28 | Local leadership offices (elders/overseers, the Seven) are functional and Spirit-qualified rather than sacramentally/hierarchically instituted; render with non-clericalized language (“anciãos,” “supervisores”) to avoid anachronistically importing later Catholic monarchical-episcopal weight. | Native speaker review |
Risk Summary (must match doctrine_risk_registry.json exactly): Critical: 10 · High: 10 · Medium: 2 · Low: 0 · Total requiring theologian review: 20 · Total requiring native speaker review: 2 · Total automated-only: 0.
Part B — Full-Book Chapter-by-Chapter Coverage (Acts 1–28)
Every chapter of Acts is reviewed below. Chapters that introduce no new doctrine beyond material already registered are explicitly marked “Reviewed — no new doctrine/terms” rather than silently omitted.
| Ch. | Narrative Content | Active Doctrines (from Part A) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ascension; promise of the Spirit; Matthias chosen | Holy Spirit & Pentecost (1:4-5,1:8); Gospel to Jews/Gentiles (1:8); Great Commission (1:8); Ascension (1:9-11); Divine Calling/Election (1:24-26); Inspiration of Scripture (1:16) | Sets the programmatic geography (“confins da terra”) and the Spirit-empowerment framework the whole book unpacks. |
| 2 | Core passage. Pentecost; Peter’s sermon; 3,000 baptized; koinōnia | Holy Spirit & Pentecost (2:1-4,17-18,33,38); Repentance & Baptism (2:37-38); Church as Community (2:42-47); Apostolic Authority (2:43); Resurrection (2:24-32); Lordship (2:34-36); Messianic Promise (2:29-31,36); Inspiration of Scripture (2:16-21); Providence (2:23); Exclusivity of Salvation (2:21); Ascension (2:33-35) | Highest doctrinal density in the book; the theological anchor of the curriculum. Every Critical-tier doctrine except Conversion of Paul, Confrontation with the Occult, and Justification apart from the Law appears here. |
| 3 | Healing of the lame man; Peter’s temple sermon | Repentance & Baptism (3:19); Apostolic Authority & Miracles (3:1-10); Resurrection (3:15); Deity/Sonship of Christ (3:14, “the Holy and Righteous One”); Messianic Promise (3:18-26) | First post-Pentecost sign; establishes the pattern of miracle-as-authentication continued throughout Acts. |
| 4 | Peter and John before the council; prayer for boldness; believers share possessions | Holy Spirit & Pentecost (4:8,4:31); Church as Community (4:32-35); Apostolic Authority (4:29-31,33); Persecution & Bold Witness (4:1-31); Resurrection (4:2,33); Providence (4:28); Exclusivity of Salvation (4:12); Inspiration of Scripture (4:25) | Contains Acts 4:12, the book’s single most exclusivist salvation statement; requires theologian review without exception. |
| 5 | Ananias and Sapphira; further healings; apostles flogged | Apostolic Authority & Miracles (5:12-16); Persecution & Bold Witness (5:17-42) | Ananias/Sapphira (5:1-11) reinforces the Spirit’s personhood (“lied to the Holy Spirit,” 5:3-4) — useful teaching support against an impersonal-force reading of “Espírito Santo,” though not a separately registered doctrine. |
| 6 | Appointment of the Seven; Stephen seized | Church as Community (6:1-7); Apostolic Authority & Miracles (6:8); Church Governance (6:1-7) | Establishes functional, Spirit-qualified local leadership prior to any later clericalized office. |
| 7 | Stephen’s speech and martyrdom | Persecution & Bold Witness (7:54-8:3); Idolatry & Exclusive Worship (7:41, golden calf); Deity/Sonship of Christ (7:56, vision of the Son of Man) | Narrative origin of the technical sense of “mártir”; “testemunha” is the term used within the verse text itself. |
| 8 | Persecution scatters the church; Philip in Samaria; Simon Magus; Ethiopian eunuch | Holy Spirit & Pentecost (8:15-17); Repentance & Baptism (8:36-38); Apostolic Authority & Miracles (8:6-13); Persecution & Bold Witness (8:1-3); Messianic Promise (8:35); Confrontation with Occult Power (8:9-24) | Simon Magus is the paradigm case for distinguishing Spirit-given authority from purchasable/manipulable occult power — directly relevant to Brazilian mediumship culture. |
| 9 | Conversion of Saul; Ananias; Saul preaches in Damascus | Conversion of Paul (9:1-19); Repentance & Baptism (9:18); Deity/Sonship of Christ (9:20); Messianic Promise (9:22); Divine Calling/Election (9:15) | First full conversion narrative; establishes the “chosen instrument” language central to the Divine Calling doctrine. |
| 10 | Peter’s vision; Cornelius’s household; Gentiles receive the Spirit | Holy Spirit & Pentecost (10:44-46); Gospel to Jews & Gentiles (10:1-48); Repentance & Baptism (10:47-48); Justification apart from the Law (10:1-48); Lordship of Christ (10:36); Exclusivity of Salvation (10:43) | The hinge chapter for Gentile inclusion; “God shows no partiality” (10:34) carries acute social weight in the Brazilian context. |
| 11 | Peter reports to Jerusalem; church at Antioch | Holy Spirit & Pentecost (11:15-17); Gospel to Jews & Gentiles (11:1-18); Church as Community (11:19-26) | Confirms and generalizes chapter 10’s Gentile-inclusion pattern; introduces the label “cristão” (11:26). |
| 12 | Herod’s persecution; Peter’s rescue; Herod’s death | Persecution & Bold Witness (12:1-19) | Narrative continuation of the persecution arc; no new doctrinal category beyond what chapters 4-5, 7-8 already register. |
| 13 | First missionary journey begins; sermon at Antioch in Pisidia; Elymas | Holy Spirit & Pentecost (13:2,9); Gospel to Jews & Gentiles (13:46-48); Justification apart from the Law (13:38-39); Great Commission (13:47); Resurrection (13:30-37); Deity/Sonship of Christ (13:33); Messianic Promise; Inspiration of Scripture (13:27); Divine Calling/Election (13:48); Exclusivity of Salvation (13:38-39); Confrontation with Occult Power (13:6-11) | The single most doctrinally concentrated missionary-journey chapter; functions as a smaller parallel to chapter 2. |
| 14 | Lystra; healing; mistaken for gods; persecution; return to Antioch | Gospel to Jews & Gentiles (14:27); Persecution & Bold Witness (14:19); Apostolic Authority & Miracles (14:3); Idolatry & Exclusive Worship (14:11-18); Church Governance (14:23) | Paul and Barnabas’s tearing of garments in refusal of worship (14:14-15) is the key idolatry-confrontation passage prior to Athens. |
| 15 | Jerusalem Council | Gospel to Jews & Gentiles (15:7-11); Justification apart from the Law (15:1-11,15:28-29); Apostolic Authority & Miracles (15:12); Inspiration of Scripture (15:15) | Contains Acts 15:11, the locked cross-reference verse (“somos salvos pela graça do Senhor Jesus”); doctrinally the theological center of the “Justification apart from the Law” cluster. |
| 16 | Timothy circumcised; Lydia; Philippian jailer; the girl with a spirit of divination | Justification apart from the Law (16:3); Repentance & Baptism (16:31-33); Lordship of Christ (16:31); Exclusivity of Salvation (16:31); Confrontation with Occult Power (16:16-18); Persecution & Bold Witness (16:19-24) | Contains the locked cross-reference Acts 16:31; the “spirit of divination” (πνεῦμα πύθωνα) passage is a direct textual parallel to mainstream Brazilian divinatory mediumship. |
| 17 | Thessalonica; Berea; Athens (Mars Hill) | Gospel to Jews & Gentiles (17:16-31); Resurrection (17:31-32); Messianic Promise (17:2-3); Providence (17:26-28); Idolatry & Exclusive Worship (17:16,23,29); Universal Accountability & Future Judgment (17:30-31) | The “unknown god” altar is the paradigm apologetic bridge-term; must culminate in the specific, personal, named God rather than remaining generic. |
| 18 | Corinth; Gallio’s tribunal; Apollos | Messianic Promise (18:5,28) | Apollos’ incomplete understanding of baptism (18:24-28, “baptism of John”) offers useful background color for the Repentance & Baptism doctrine without altering its registered risk tier. |
| 19 | Ephesus; disciples of John rebaptized; Sons of Sceva; riot of Demetrius | Holy Spirit & Pentecost (19:1-6); Repentance & Baptism (19:4-5); Apostolic Authority & Miracles (19:11-12); Confrontation with Occult Power (19:13-20); Idolatry & Exclusive Worship (19:26) | The failed exorcism-by-formula of the sons of Sceva (19:13-16) is the key passage distinguishing “em nome de Jesus” from any magical incantation. |
| 20 | Miletus farewell; Eutychus; charge to the Ephesian elders | Church as Community (20:17-28); Apostolic Authority & Miracles (20:27, “the whole counsel of God”); Church Governance (20:17-28) | Locus classicus for “anciãos”/“bispos” as functional, non-hierarchical oversight roles. |
| 21 | Agabus’s prophecy; Paul’s Nazirite vow; arrest in the temple | Justification apart from the Law (21:21-25); Persecution & Bold Witness (21:27-36); Inspiration of Scripture (21:11) | Agabus’s prophecy (21:11) is the key post-Pentecost prophetic-continuity passage. |
| 22 | Paul’s defense before the crowd; his conversion retold | Repentance & Baptism (22:16); Conversion of Paul (22:3-16); Divine Calling/Election (22:14) | Second of three conversion retellings (with ch. 9 and 26); consistency of rendering across all three is required. |
| 23 | Paul before the Sanhedrin; Pharisees vs. Sadducees on resurrection; plot against Paul | Resurrection (23:6-8) | The Sadducee/Pharisee dispute over resurrection is a live pre-Christian Jewish theological fault line, useful contrastive background for the doctrine’s uniqueness in Christ. |
| 24 | Paul before Felix | Resurrection (24:15,21); Universal Accountability & Future Judgment (24:15,25) | Felix’s fear at “righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment” (24:25) is a key passage for the finality of judgment doctrine. |
| 25 | Paul before Festus; appeal to Caesar; Agrippa introduced | — | Reviewed — no new doctrine or terms. Chapter 25 continues the legal/narrative proceedings of Paul’s trial (persecution/bold-witness and providence arcs already covered under Acts 21–24 and 27) but introduces no new theological term or doctrine requiring a new registry entry. |
| 26 | Paul’s defense before Agrippa; third retelling of his conversion | Repentance & Baptism (26:20); Conversion of Paul (26:9-18); Resurrection (26:23); Messianic Promise (26:22-23) | Contains the “power of Satan” to God transfer language (26:18), the doctrine’s sharpest two-kingdom statement. |
| 27 | Shipwreck voyage to Rome | Providence & Sovereign Plan (27:22-25) | God’s personal governance amid natural crisis; guards against a fatalistic or impersonal reading of the outcome. |
| 28 | Arrival in Rome; viper at Malta; final testimony; the book’s open ending | Gospel to Jews & Gentiles (28:28); Great Commission Fulfilled (28:28,30-31); Lordship of Christ (28:31); Inspiration of Scripture (28:25); Idolatry & Exclusive Worship (28:6, “he is a god”) | The book’s closing verse (“com toda ousadia, sem impedimento”) must be rendered as deliberately open-ended, not as a resolved conclusion. |
This document extends, and never contradicts, doctrine_risk_registry.json (version 1) and the baseline Romans doctrine framework. All 22 doctrines, risk tiers, and review routings above are identical to the registry. See 08_core_glossary.md for the corresponding term-level glossary and 04_comparative_theology.md for the cross-tradition interpretive analysis of each doctrine cluster.
Critical Risk Doctrines
The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Portuguese name: o Espírito Santo e o Pentecostes
Key terms: Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, Pentecost, tongues, gift of the Holy Spirit, baptized with the Holy Spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
The personal, sovereign, once-for-all-inaugurated outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the repeated Spirit-fillings throughout Acts, sit directly beside mainstream Brazilian Kardecist and Umbanda/Candomblé vocabulary for incorporação and possessão mediúnica. Brazil’s Spiritist and Afro-diasporic religious populations are among the world’s largest of their kind, making this collision unusually acute and unavoidable for nearly every Pentecost-related verse in this curriculum.
Repentance and Baptism
Portuguese name: o arrependimento e o batismo
Key terms: repentance, baptism, forgiveness of sins, cut to the heart, household baptism
Review routing: Human theologian
Peter’s altar-call formula (2:38) grants complete, immediate forgiveness upon a decisive repentance and baptism in this life. This is the single sharpest available contrast with Kardecism’s doctrine of reforma íntima, in which moral failure (‘erro’) is a debt worked off gradually across successive reincarnations through suffering and self-effort (‘lei de causa e efeito’). Softening the decisiveness or completeness of this forgiveness would collapse the doctrine into the very framework it confronts.
Conversion of Paul
Portuguese name: a conversão de Paulo
Key terms: the Way, vision, power of Satan, chosen instrument, light from heaven
Review routing: Human theologian
Christ’s own commissioning words frame conversion as a decisive transfer from ‘the power of Satan’ to God (26:18), preserving a sharp two-kingdom dualism. This must be preserved with full force against any framework — Kardecist, Umbanda, or generally syncretistic — in which spirits, forces, or entities are morally ambiguous or classifiable along a single evolutionary continuum rather than belonging decisively to one of two opposed kingdoms.
Justification apart from the Law
Portuguese name: a justificação sem a lei
Key terms: circumcision, yoke, grace, faith, unclean/common
Review routing: Human theologian
The Jerusalem Council’s resolution (15:11, ‘somos salvos pela graça do Senhor Jesus’) is Acts’ clearest single-verse statement that salvation is by grace through faith, not law-keeping, combining four already-Critical/High baseline terms (graça, salvação, Senhor, fé). Must read as theologically unified with Romans’ treatment of the same doctrine, resisting both a Tridentine-adjacent merit-based reading of covenant obedience and a Kardecist-adjacent reading of gradual self-earned merit.
Resurrection of Christ
Portuguese name: a ressurreição de Cristo
Key terms: resurrection, author of life, corruption
Review routing: Human theologian
Peter’s Pentecost sermon and Paul’s later defenses repeatedly ground the gospel in Christ’s bodily, historical, once-for-all resurrection, explicitly denying his body saw corruption (2:27,31). Brazil has the world’s largest self-identified Spiritist population, for whom reincarnation is a mainstream, textually codified, culturally normalized belief; ‘ressurreição’ must never be rendered or explained in any way approaching ‘reencarnação.‘
Lordship of Christ
Portuguese name: o senhorio de Cristo
Key terms: Lord, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts 2:36 (‘Deus o fez Senhor e Cristo’) is the climactic doctrinal statement of Peter’s sermon and must retain exclusive, supreme lordship over the whole of life, not a devotional title held alongside spirit guides, orixás, or ancestor spirits as one venerated figure among several.
Deity and Sonship of Christ
Portuguese name: a divindade e a filiação divina de Cristo
Key terms: Son of God, Son of Man, Holy and Righteous One
Review routing: Human theologian
Titles applied to Jesus in Acts (Son of God, Son of Man, the Holy and Righteous One) must convey co-equal divine nature and must not be softened to Kardecism’s Christology of Jesus as ‘the most evolved spirit ever incarnated,’ a model and guide among many advancing spirits, rather than the unique, eternally divine Son.
Messianic Promise
Portuguese name: a promessa messiânica
Key terms: Messiah, servant, seed of David
Review routing: Human theologian
Peter’s and Paul’s repeated demonstrations from the Old Testament that Jesus is ‘o Cristo’ must be preserved as the unique, exclusively-fulfilled Old Testament promise, not softened toward Kardecism’s rival claim that Jesus is simply the most spiritually advanced of many evolving spirits.
Exclusivity of Salvation
Portuguese name: a exclusividade da salvação
Key terms: no other name, salvation, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts 4:12 (‘em nenhum outro há salvação’) is the single most exclusivist salvation claim in the New Testament, directly colliding with Brazilian religious pluralism, which typically affirms multiple valid spiritual paths, mediating spirits, saints, or orixás. This claim must be rendered with full, unqualified exclusivity, resisting any softening pressure toward relativizing language.
Confrontation with Occult and Demonic Power
Portuguese name: o confronto com o poder oculto e demoníaco
Key terms: sorcery, sorcerer, spirit of divination, unclean spirit, the great power of God (Simon’s claim)
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts repeatedly narrates real but harmful occult power — sorcery, divination, spirit possession — genuinely defeated by Christ’s superior authority, never explained away as mere trickery. This is arguably the single most directly relevant doctrinal cluster in the entire curriculum for Brazil, where divinatory mediumship (Kardecism), spirit consultation and incorporation (Umbanda/Candomblé), and folk-magical practice are mainstream, organized, and widespread rather than fringe; teaching must be pastorally careful not to glamorize occult detail while preserving the passages’ clear verdict of real spiritual conflict and decisive victory.
High Risk Doctrines
The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Portuguese name: o evangelho para judeus e gentios
Key terms: Gentiles, God shows no partiality, circumcision, unclean/common, idol
Review routing: Human theologian
Peter’s vision and Cornelius’s household establish that the gospel excludes no ethnic group; Brazil’s own history of racial and social stratification, rooted in its colonial and slaveholding past (the largest of any nation in the Americas), gives ‘God shows no partiality’ direct, weighty social application beyond an abstract doctrinal point.
Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Portuguese name: a autoridade apostólica e os milagres
Key terms: signs and wonders, in the name of Jesus, the whole counsel of God, apostle
Review routing: Human theologian
Apostolic miracles are God’s own authentication of his messengers exercised strictly through delegated authority (‘em nome de Jesus’), never a technique, formula, or purchasable power. This must be sharply distinguished from feitiçaria/magia and from Kardecist/Umbanda/Candomblé ‘fenômenos mediúnicos,’ both mainstream, organized frameworks in Brazil claiming comparable supernatural phenomena through very different sources of power.
Persecution and Bold Witness
Portuguese name: a perseguição e o testemunho ousado
Key terms: witness, boldness, persecution, martyr
Review routing: Human theologian
Firsthand, historical, verifiable eyewitness testimony (‘testemunha’) endured under threat and, in Stephen’s case, unto death, must be distinguished from a subjective ‘testemunho espiritual’ of an inner mystical experience, a common framing in Brazilian charismatic-syncretic and Kardecist religious discourse; the doctrine’s force depends on testimony to a specific, historical, bodily reality, not an inward feeling.
The Great Commission Fulfilled
Portuguese name: a grande comissão cumprida
Key terms: ends of the earth, witness, kingdom of God, boldness
Review routing: Native speaker review
The book’s closing verse deliberately ends ‘unhindered’ (ἀκωλύτως), inviting the reader into an ongoing task rather than a tidy narrative conclusion; this open-ended missionary momentum must be preserved rather than resolved into a completed, self-congratulatory ending, particularly given Brazil’s own status as both a major mission-sending and mission-receiving field.
Inspiration of Scripture
Portuguese name: a inspiração das Escrituras
Key terms: prophet, prophecy, the Holy Spirit said
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts repeatedly grounds apostolic proclamation in already-inspired, closed-canon Scripture and in Spirit-given prophetic warning consistent with it (e.g., Agabus, 21:11). Kardecist Spiritism claims its own foundational texts were dictated by discarnate spirits through mediums (psicografia), a direct, well-known rival claim to revealed authority in Brazil; the uniqueness and finality of apostolic-era revelation must be taught in explicit contrast to this ongoing mediumistic ‘revelation.‘
Providence and the Sovereign Plan of God
Portuguese name: a providência e o plano soberano de Deus
Key terms: definite plan and foreknowledge of God, providence
Review routing: Human theologian
God’s personal, purposive plan behind both Christ’s crucifixion (2:23; 4:28) and the ordering of the nations (17:26) must not be assimilated to Kardecism’s impersonal ‘lei de causa e efeito,’ a karma-like moral law governing a spirit’s progress across reincarnations; this is a personal God’s specific plan, not a cosmic determinism.
Divine Calling and Election
Portuguese name: o chamado e a eleição divina
Key terms: called, chosen instrument, appointed to eternal life
Review routing: Human theologian
God’s sovereign, personal choice of Paul as a ‘chosen instrument’ (9:15) and of ‘as many as were appointed to eternal life’ (13:48) must not be softened into a merit-earned status accumulated across lifetimes, a reading Kardecism’s doctrine of spiritual evolution would suggest by analogy to its own framework.
Idolatry and Exclusive Worship of God
Portuguese name: a idolatria e o culto exclusivo a Deus
Key terms: idol, the gods have come down, unknown god, living God
Review routing: Human theologian
Paul and Barnabas’s forceful refusal of worship at Lystra (14:14-15) and Paul’s Athens sermon both directly confront polytheistic and image-based worship. This has direct relevance to Afro-Brazilian religious imagery (orixá statues, altars) and to folk-Catholic devotional image veneration, and must be taught with pastoral sensitivity but without softening the text’s exclusive monotheism.
Ascension and Exaltation of Christ
Portuguese name: a ascensão e exaltação de Cristo
Key terms: ascension, exalted at the right hand of God
Review routing: Human theologian
Christ’s bodily, visible, historical, unrepeated ascension into heaven must be kept sharply distinct from Kardecist teaching about a spirit’s ‘desencarnação’ (departure from the body at ordinary death) and subsequent migration through ‘planos espirituais’; this is a unique exaltation event, not every person’s common post-mortem transition.
Universal Human Accountability and Future Judgment
Portuguese name: a responsabilidade universal e o juízo futuro
Key terms: repent… he has fixed a day, righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, resurrection of the just and the unjust
Review routing: Human theologian
Paul’s insistence on a single, decisive, future day of judgment by a personal Christ directly confronts the Kardecist doctrine of accountability distributed and resolved gradually across many incarnations; this claim of a fixed, singular reckoning must retain its unqualified, linear, one-time force.
Medium Risk Doctrines
The Church as Community
Portuguese name: a igreja como comunidade
Key terms: church, fellowship, all things in common, breaking of bread, elders, added to the church
Review routing: Native speaker review
The gathered, mutually-committed local community described here should be distinguished from the capitalized institutional sense of ‘a Igreja’ foregrounded in Catholic usage, and ‘anciãos’/‘bispos’ should be rendered functionally rather than importing the later, fully developed hierarchical, sacramental clerical office.
Church Governance and Spirit-Filled Leadership
Portuguese name: o governo da igreja e a liderança cheia do Espírito
Key terms: elders, overseers, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, serve tables
Review routing: Native speaker review
Local church leadership offices (elders/overseers, the Seven) are functional and Spirit-qualified rather than sacramentally or hierarchically instituted; render with functional, non-clericalized language (‘anciãos’, ‘supervisores’) to avoid importing later Catholic monarchical-episcopal weight anachronistically into this narrative stage of church development.
Referenced passages