Doctrine Analysis
Doctrine Analysis — Acts (English → Thai)
Purpose
This document is the full-book doctrine matrix for Acts 1–28, produced under PRD Phase 1 Step 4/5. It is fully consistent with assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json: the same 20 doctrines, the same risk tiers, and the same review routing. Acts 2:1–41 (Pentecost) is the curriculum’s theological anchor, not its scope boundary — every chapter of Acts is accounted for below, including chapters that introduce no new Critical/High doctrine, which are explicitly marked “Reviewed — carries forward established doctrine” rather than silently omitted.
Risk tier definitions follow the baseline exactly:
| Tier | Definition | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | Mistranslation alters or destroys essential doctrine | Human theologian, every occurrence |
| High | Mistranslation creates significant theological confusion or syncretism risk | Human theologian |
| Medium | Mistranslation reduces clarity but preserves essential meaning | Native speaker review |
| Low | Mistranslation causes minor misunderstanding | Automated review |
Part A — Doctrine Risk Matrix (Full Book)
| # | Doctrine | Primary Acts Passages | Risk | Translation Risk Summary | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Holy Spirit and Pentecost | 1:4-5, 8; 2:1-4, 17-18, 33, 38; 4:31; 8:15-17; 10:44-46; 19:2, 6 | Critical | เต็มด้วยพระวิญญาณบริสุทธิ์ collides with Thai spirit-possession vocabulary (ผีเข้า, ทรงเจ้า); “other tongues” (ภาษาอื่น) must not overlap ecstatic trance-speech register of spirit mediums. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Deity and Personhood of the Holy Spirit | 5:3-4, 9 | Critical | ”Lied to the Holy Spirit” must read as offense against the one supreme personal God, not against a negotiable ancestral/nature spirit (ผี). | Human theologian |
| 3 | The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 2:5-11, 39; 8:26-39; 10:1-48; 11:1-18; 13:46-48; 15:1-29; 28:28 | High | ”God shows no partiality” must retain full force against any reading that grants Thai Buddhist identity inherent religious priority. | Human theologian |
| 4 | Repentance and Baptism | 2:37-41; 3:19; 8:36-38; 9:18; 10:47-48; 16:30-33; 19:3-5; 22:16 | Critical | กลับใจ must be anchored to Spirit-enabled turning to God through Christ, not generic remorse or Buddhist merit-restoring confession; บัพติศมา must be distinguished from รดน้ำมนต์ (monk water-blessing). | Human theologian |
| 5 | Forgiveness of Sins | 2:38; 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18 | Critical | Never render with karma-ledger-clearing vocabulary (ล้างกรรม, ลบล้างบาปกรรม); this is God’s judicial remission through Christ, not self-cleared debt. | Human theologian |
| 6 | The Church as Community | 2:41-47; 4:32-37; 6:1-7; 9:31; 11:26; 12:5 | Medium | ”Held all things in common” must be distinguished from institutional monastic communal property (จตุปัจจัยของสงฆ์); สาวก (disciples) is shared vocabulary with Buddhism and must always be anchored to Christ explicitly. | Native speaker review |
| 7 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | 2:43; 3:1-16; 4:33; 5:12; 6:6; 8:17-19; 13:3; 19:6, 11-12 | High | Healing “in the name of Jesus” must be distinguished from an incantation (คาถาอาคม) or amulet-potency (วัตถุมงคล); this is appeal to the living, personal, exalted Christ. | Human theologian |
| 8 | Persecution and Bold Witness | 4:1-31; 5:17-42; 7:54-60; 8:1-3; 9:23-25; 12:1-19; 14:19; 16:16-40; 21:27-36; 22:1-29; chs. 24-26 | High | ใจกล้า (boldness) must be Spirit-given courage rooted in gospel truth, not honor/face-driven confrontation (รักษาหน้า); พยาน (witness) must convey formal eyewitness testimony, not subjective personal-experience sharing. | Human theologian |
| 9 | Conversion of Paul | 9:1-31; 22:3-21; 26:9-23 | Critical | Sovereign, unsought divine calling must not be read as เวรกรรม (karmic destiny) or ดวง (astrological fate); “the Way” (ทางนั้น) must never be rendered มรรค, the Buddhist Noble Path term. | Human theologian |
| 10 | Justification apart from the Law | 13:38-39; 15:1-11, 19-20, 24 | Critical | ”Works of the law” must never use กรรมดี or บุญ (karma/merit); the Jerusalem Council’s grace-parity ruling (15:11) must retain full force against merit-based readings. | Human theologian |
| 11 | The Great Commission Fulfilled | 1:8; 8:1, 4-40; 13:1-3, 47; 28:23, 30-31 | High | Jerusalem-to-Rome expansion must read as the gospel’s own inherent divine momentum, not foreign cultural imposition on Thai-Buddhist national identity; use พันธกิจ consistently, never religion-propagation language. | Native speaker review |
| 12 | Lordship and Exaltation of Christ | 2:33-36; 7:55-56; 10:36; 22:8-10 | Critical | ”God made him both Lord and Christ” is public vindication of an eternally true status, not ontological origination or merit-earned/royal-apotheosis divinization; must not collapse into Thai royal-honorific register. | Human theologian |
| 13 | Ascension and Heavenly Session of Christ | 1:2, 9-11, 22; 2:33-34; 7:55 | Critical | Must not be read through a deva’s ascent or a monarch’s apotheosis-after-death motif; unique, bodily, permanent return to the Father in glorified humanity. | Human theologian |
| 14 | Resurrection of Christ | 1:22; 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; 26:8, 23 | Critical | การเป็นขึ้นจากตาย only, never การเกิดใหม่/การกลับชาติมาเกิด (rebirth/reincarnation); Eutychus’s revival (20:9-10) must use the distinct ฟื้นขึ้นมามีชีวิต to avoid blurring with Christ’s unique resurrection. | Human theologian |
| 15 | Messianic Promise and Fulfillment of Prophecy | 2:16-21, 25-31; 3:18-25; 13:32-41; 15:15-18; 26:22-23; 28:23 | Critical | Must never conflate Messiah with พระศรีอริยเมตไตรย (the future Buddha); linear one-time OT fulfillment, not cyclical Buddhist-Brahmanic world-ages. | Human theologian |
| 16 | Divine Providence and Sovereignty | 1:26; 5:38-39; 12:5-11, 23-24; 17:24-28; 18:9-10; 20:27; 23:11; 27:21-25, 34; 28:1-6 | High | Never เวรกรรม (karmic cause-effect) or ดวง (astrological fortune); “angel of the Lord” must be distinguished from เทวดา (Buddhist-Brahmanic minor deity). | Human theologian |
| 17 | Universal Human Accountability | 2:23, 36-38; 17:30-31; 24:25 | High | Universal indictment and universal command to repent must not soften into a graded merit-scale of relative self-improvement. | Human theologian |
| 18 | Deliverance from Spiritual Darkness | 8:9-24; 13:6-12; 19:18-19; 26:18 | High | ”From darkness to light” must not read as self-attained Buddhist enlightenment (โพธิ, ปัญญา); ซาตาน is a real personal adversary, distinct from มาร (Māra) within a self-liberation cosmology. | Human theologian |
| 19 | Church Governance and Leadership | 6:1-6; 14:23; 15:2-29; 20:17, 28 | Medium | Appointed elders/overseers (ผู้ปกครอง/ผู้ดูแล) must be distinguished from age-based social deference (ผู้ใหญ่) and sangha institutional authority (พระเถระ, เจ้าอาวาส). | Native speaker review |
| 20 | Renunciation of Occult Practice | 8:9-24; 13:6-12; 19:11-20 | High | Direct parallel to Thai saiyasat (ไสยศาสตร์), amulets (เครื่องรางของขลัง), and fortune-telling (การดูดวง); must be preserved as a definitive pastoral break from occult practice at conversion. | Human theologian |
Part B — Chapter-by-Chapter Doctrinal Coverage, Acts 1–28
Acts 1 — Ascension and Heavenly Session (1:2, 9-11, 22); Great Commission Fulfilled, foundational commissioning (1:8); Divine Providence and Apostolic Authority (1:26, casting lots after prayer, distinguished from divination/หมอดู). New terms: ascension, casting lots.
Acts 2 — Core passage. Holy Spirit and Pentecost (2:1-4, 17-18, 33, 38); Messianic Promise and Fulfillment of Prophecy (2:16-21, 25-31, Joel/David citations); Lordship and Exaltation of Christ (2:33-36); Resurrection of Christ (2:24-32); Repentance and Baptism (2:37-41); Forgiveness of Sins (2:38); Church as Community (2:41-47); Universal Human Accountability (2:23, 36-38). Highest term-density chapter in the book; anchors all downstream consistency rules (Joel 2:32/Romans 10:13 citation at 2:21; salvation-confession pattern at 2:38-41).
Acts 3 — Resurrection of Christ (3:15, 26); Messianic Promise/Fulfillment of Prophecy (3:18-25); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (3:1-16, healing in Jesus’s name); Repentance (3:19); new term “Servant of God” (ho pais autou, 3:13, 26).
Acts 4 — Apostolic Authority and Miracles (4:33); Persecution and Bold Witness (4:1-31, Spirit-given boldness); Gospel to Jews and Gentiles / Universal Human Accountability (4:12, “no other name,” Critical exclusivity statement); Church as Community (4:32-37, held all things in common).
Acts 5 — Deity and Personhood of the Holy Spirit (5:3-4, 9, Ananias); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (5:12); Persecution and Bold Witness (5:17-42); Divine Providence (5:38-39, Gamaliel’s counsel).
Acts 6 — Church as Community and Church Governance and Leadership (6:1-7, appointment of the Seven/deacons; Hellenists). No new Critical doctrine; extends established Church-as-Community terms with governance-office nuance.
Acts 7 — Persecution and Bold Witness (7:54-60, Stephen’s stoning); Messianic Promise/Fulfillment of Prophecy (7:2-53, Stephen’s covenant-history speech); Divine Providence (implicit throughout the speech’s historical retelling). Reviewed — no new Critical/High term beyond established covenant/promise/prophet vocabulary.
Acts 8 — Great Commission Fulfilled (8:1, 4-40, scattering and Samaria/Philip); Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (8:26-39, Ethiopian eunuch); Renunciation of Occult Practice (8:9-24, Simon Magus); Persecution and Bold Witness (8:1-3, Saul’s persecution).
Acts 9 — Conversion of Paul (9:1-31, the Damascus road; “the Way,” 9:2); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (9:17, laying on of hands); Divine Providence. Foundational chapter for the Conversion of Paul doctrine developed further at chs. 22 and 26.
Acts 10 — Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (10:1-48, Cornelius; “God shows no partiality,” 10:34); Holy Spirit and Pentecost (10:44-46, Gentile outpouring); Universal Human Accountability (implicit universality). Pivotal narrative instantiation of Jew-Gentile unity doctrine.
Acts 11 — Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (11:1-18, Jerusalem’s affirmation; “repentance that leads to life,” 11:18); Church as Community (11:26, the disciples first called “Christians” at Antioch); Great Commission Fulfilled (11:19-26, Antioch mission base).
Acts 12 — Divine Providence and Sovereignty (12:1-11, Peter’s angelic deliverance; 12:23-24, Herod’s judgment); Persecution and Bold Witness (12:1-5). Reviewed — no new Critical/High term; reinforces established providence vocabulary against fate/karma substitution.
Acts 13 — Justification apart from the Law (13:38-39, “everyone who believes is justified”); Messianic Promise/Fulfillment of Prophecy (13:32-41, Davidic-covenant sermon); Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (13:46-48, turning to the Gentiles; “light to the Gentiles,” 13:47); Renunciation of Occult Practice (13:6-12, Elymas); Great Commission Fulfilled (13:1-3, Antioch commissioning).
Acts 14 — Persecution and Bold Witness (14:19, stoning at Lystra); Great Commission Fulfilled (14:21-27, return report); Church Governance and Leadership (14:23, appointing elders). Reviewed — established terms reused; no new Critical/High doctrine.
Acts 15 — Justification apart from the Law (15:1-11, 19-20, 24, the Jerusalem Council — the doctrinal center of gravity for this doctrine in Acts); Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (15:7, 12, 14, 19); Church Governance and Leadership (15:2-29, apostolic decree). One of the two highest-density chapters for the justification doctrine alongside Galatians in the broader curriculum.
Acts 16 — Repentance and Baptism (16:30-33, the Philippian jailer; “what must I do to be saved,” Critical parallel to Romans 10:9); Persecution and Bold Witness (16:16-40, imprisonment; Roman citizenship, 16:37-38); Divine Providence (16:9-10, the Macedonian vision).
Acts 17 — Universal Human Accountability (17:30-31, “God commands all people everywhere to repent”); Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (17:22-31, the Areopagus address; “unknown god,” 17:23, High-risk rhetorical bridge); Resurrection of Christ (17:18, 31-32); Divine Providence (17:24-28).
Acts 18 — Divine Providence (18:9-10, the Corinth vision); Persecution and Bold Witness (18:1-17); Church as Community (18:23-28). Reviewed — reinforces established terms; no new Critical/High doctrine.
Acts 19 — Holy Spirit and Pentecost (19:1-7, the Ephesian disciples; John’s baptism vs. Spirit baptism, 19:3-5); Renunciation of Occult Practice (19:11-20, magic books burned — the book’s most explicit occult-renunciation narrative); Persecution and Bold Witness (19:23-41, the Artemis riot).
Acts 20 — Church Governance and Leadership (20:17, 28, elders/overseers charge at Miletus); Divine Providence (20:27, “the whole counsel of God”); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (20:9-10, Eutychus — explicitly distinguished from the Resurrection-of-Christ term).
Acts 21 — Church as Community (21:23-24, the Nazirite-vow accommodation); Persecution and Bold Witness (21:27-36, arrest in the temple). Reviewed — no new Critical/High doctrine; requires an OT-background note for the Nazirite vow (Numbers 6) but low syncretism risk.
Acts 22 — Conversion of Paul (22:3-21, Paul’s first defense-retelling of his conversion); Persecution and Bold Witness (22:1-29, defense/testimony genre; Roman citizenship, 22:25-28).
Acts 23 — Divine Providence (23:11, the Lord’s reassurance in prison); Persecution and Bold Witness (23:1-10, defense before the council; “conscience,” 23:1). Reviewed — reinforces established terms.
Acts 24 — Justification apart from the Law / Universal Human Accountability background (24:25, “righteousness, self-control, and future judgment”); Resurrection of Christ (24:15, 21); Persecution and Bold Witness (defense before Felix). Reviewed — no new Critical/High term.
Acts 25 — Persecution and Bold Witness (defense before Festus; Roman citizenship, 25:10-11). Reviewed — no new doctrine-critical content; narrative continuation of the legal-defense sequence.
Acts 26 — Conversion of Paul (26:9-23, Paul’s third and fullest conversion retelling, before Agrippa); Deliverance from Spiritual Darkness (26:18, “from darkness to light… from the power of Satan to God” — Critical-adjacent High-risk term cluster); Resurrection of Christ (26:8, 23); Messianic Promise/Fulfillment of Prophecy (26:22-23).
Acts 27 — Divine Providence and Sovereignty (27:21-25, 34, the storm and the angelic assurance). Reviewed — reinforces established providence vocabulary against fatalism/ดวง substitution; no new Critical/High term.
Acts 28 — Great Commission Fulfilled (28:23, 30-31, the gospel proclaimed unhindered in Rome — the book’s narrative climax); Messianic Promise/Fulfillment of Prophecy (28:23, 25-28, Isaiah citation); Divine Providence (28:1-6, the viper). Closing chapter; confirms the Jerusalem-to-Rome trajectory named in 1:8.
Part C — Summary Statistics (must match doctrine_risk_registry.json)
| Tier | Count | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 10 | Human theologian (every occurrence) |
| High | 8 | Human theologian |
| Medium | 2 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 0 | Automated review |
| Total doctrines | 20 | — |
| Total requiring theologian review | 18 | — |
| Total requiring native speaker review | 2 | — |
| Total automated-only | 0 | — |
All 28 chapters of Acts are represented in Part B, either as primary carriers of one or more of the 20 registry doctrines, or explicitly marked “Reviewed” as chapters that reuse established vocabulary without introducing new Critical/High doctrinal content (chs. 6, 7, 12, 14, 18, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27 in particular). No chapter is silently omitted, per the PRD Phase 1 full-book-coverage mandate.
This document extends but never contradicts assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json and the Romans/Galatians baseline (translation_memory.json, bible_term_registry.json, 12_ai_translation_requirements.md). See 08_core_glossary.md for the complete term-level detail underlying each doctrine entry above.
Critical Risk Doctrines
The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Thai name: พระวิญญาณบริสุทธิ์และวันเพ็นเทคอสต์
Key terms: holy_spirit, pentecost, filled_with_holy_spirit, tongues_other_languages, gift_of_holy_spirit, pour_out_the_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
‘Filled with the Holy Spirit’ (เต็มด้วยพระวิญญาณบริสุทธิ์) collides directly with fluent Thai vocabulary for spirit possession (ผีเข้า, การทรงเจ้า, วิญญาณสิงร่าง), in which an external spirit takes over a body, often involuntarily and often through a paid medium. Must be taught as the willing, personal indwelling of the one true God’s own Spirit empowering purposeful witness, categorically distinct from possession. ‘Other tongues’ (ภาษาอื่น) must not be worded to overlap with the ecstatic trance-speech associated with spirit-medium ritual.
Deity and Personhood of the Holy Spirit
Thai name: ความเป็นพระเจ้าและความเป็นบุคคลของพระวิญญาณบริสุทธิ์
Key terms: lied_to_holy_spirit, holy_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
Peter’s statement that Ananias ‘lied to the Holy Spirit’ and ‘tested the Spirit of the Lord’ is among the NT’s most direct assertions of the Spirit’s full, personal deity; must not be softened into an offense against a mere impersonal rule or communal norm, and must not be assimilated to the Thai frame of offending an ancestral or nature spirit (ผี), a created, lesser being subject to negotiation, not the one supreme God.
Repentance and Baptism
Thai name: การกลับใจและการรับบัพติศมา
Key terms: repentance, cut_to_the_heart, baptism, johns_baptism_vs_spirit_baptism, what_must_i_do_to_be_saved
Review routing: Human theologian
กลับใจ (repent) must be anchored to a Spirit-enabled turn toward God on the basis of Christ’s death and resurrection, distinguished from generic remorse (เสียใจ, สำนึกผิด) and from the Buddhist practice of confession or vow-renewal before a monk or Buddha image, which functions within a self-directed merit-restoration framework rather than turning to a personal God. Baptism (บัพติศมา) must be distinguished from Buddhist monk water-blessing (รดน้ำมนต์) and Brahmanical purification bathing; it marks a one-time, decisive identification with Christ, not a repeatable blessing-renewal rite.
Forgiveness of Sins
Thai name: การทรงยกบาปโทษ
Key terms: forgiveness_of_sins, sin, grace
Review routing: Human theologian
NEVER render with vocabulary suggesting the erasure or offsetting of accumulated negative karma (ล้างกรรม, ลบล้างบาปกรรม) — an especially tempting substitution given how pervasive the karma-ledger frame is in ordinary Thai religious speech. Forgiveness is God’s own judicial remission secured through Christ’s atoning death, not a self-generated or ritually-purchased clearing of a moral debt.
Conversion of Paul
Thai name: การกลับใจเชื่อของเปาโล
Key terms: called, calling, election, the_way, scales_fell_from_eyes, disciples
Review routing: Human theologian
The paradigm case of sovereign, effectual, unsought divine calling (‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’) must be presented as God’s own initiative, not the impersonal karma-fixed destiny (เวรกรรม) or astrological fatalism (ดวง) already forbidden for calling/election in the baseline. ‘The Way’ (ทางนั้น), the early self-designation of the movement Paul once persecuted and then joined, must never be rendered มรรค, the Buddhist Noble Path technical term, which would suggest a self-attained path parallel to the Buddhist path rather than a movement centered on receiving Christ’s grace.
Justification apart from the Law
Thai name: การเป็นผู้ชอบธรรมโดยไม่อาศัยธรรมบัญญัติ
Key terms: justification, righteousness, works_of_the_law, circumcision, grace, freedom
Review routing: Human theologian
Directly parallels the Galatians controversy narrated here as history; ‘works of the law’ must never be rendered with กรรมดี or บุญ (good karma/merit) vocabulary, which would convert Peter’s and Paul’s forensic argument (Acts 15:10-11) into a claim about escaping bad karma through devotional merit-accumulation. The Jerusalem Council’s ruling that Gentiles are saved by grace exactly as Jewish believers are (15:11) must retain full force against any merit-based reading.
Lordship and Exaltation of Christ
Thai name: ความเป็นองค์พระผู้เป็นเจ้าและการทรงได้รับการยกขึ้นของพระคริสต์
Key terms: lord, god_made_him_lord_and_christ, right_hand_of_god, son_of_man
Review routing: Human theologian
‘God made him both Lord and Christ’ (2:36) must be read as the public installation and vindication of an eternally true status, not the ontological origination of Christ’s deity; a Thai reading could otherwise either deny his eternal deity or, conversely, affirm the popular frame of a person becoming divine through accumulated merit or royal apotheosis after death. Christ’s exclusive Lordship must not collapse into the extensive Thai royal-honorific register reserved for the monarchy, nor read as commentary on political sovereignty.
Ascension and Heavenly Session of Christ
Thai name: การเสด็จขึ้นสู่สวรรค์ของพระคริสต์
Key terms: ascension, right_hand_of_god
Review routing: Human theologian
Must not be confused with a deva’s or an enlightened being’s ascent to a heavenly plane, nor with the apotheosis motif of a king ascending to become a deity after death — a live risk given Thai royal-honorific vocabulary for a monarch’s death and afterlife. This is Christ’s unique, bodily, historical, and permanent return to the Father in glorified humanity, not a disembodied spiritual ascent.
Resurrection of Christ
Thai name: การเป็นขึ้นจากตายของพระคริสต์
Key terms: resurrection, eutychus_revived
Review routing: Human theologian
การเป็นขึ้นจากตาย, never การเกิดใหม่ or การกลับชาติมาเกิด (rebirth/reincarnation), per the baseline’s forbidden-substitution rule, applied throughout Acts’s most repeated doctrinal claim. Temporary revivals such as Eutychus (20:9-10) must use a distinct phrase (ฟื้นขึ้นมามีชีวิต) to avoid blurring the once-for-all, bodily, eschatological resurrection with a this-worldly restoration to ongoing mortal life.
Messianic Promise and Fulfillment of Prophecy
Thai name: พระสัญญาเรื่องพระเมสสิยาห์และความสำเร็จของคำพยากรณ์
Key terms: messiah, christ, prophet, prophecy, servant_of_god, covenant, promise, david
Review routing: Human theologian
Continues the baseline’s Critical caution against conflating Messiah with the popular Thai expectation of the future Buddha Phra Si Ariya Metrai (พระศรีอริยเมตไตรย); Acts repeatedly grounds Jesus as the sole, historical fulfillment of specific, ancient OT promises (David, Moses, Isaiah’s Servant), a linear one-time fulfillment pattern distinct from the cyclical world-ages of Buddhist-Brahmanic cosmology.
High Risk Doctrines
The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Thai name: ข่าวประเสริฐสำหรับชาวยิวและคนต่างชาติ
Key terms: gentiles, unclean_common, god_shows_no_partiality, light_to_gentiles, no_other_name, call_upon_the_name_of_the_lord
Review routing: Human theologian
Extends the baseline’s Unity of Jews and Gentiles doctrine to its fullest narrative outworking in Acts 10-15. ‘God shows no partiality’ (พระเจ้าไม่ทรงเลือกที่รักมักที่ชัง) must retain full force against any claim of inherent ethnic or religious priority — a claim Thai national identity’s close association with Buddhism could otherwise invite readers to assume applies analogously to their own context.
Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Thai name: สิทธิอำนาจของอัครทูตและการอัศจรรย์
Key terms: apostle, signs_and_wonders, name_of_jesus_invoked, laying_on_of_hands, casting_lots
Review routing: Human theologian
Healing ‘in the name of Jesus Christ’ must be distinguished from an incantation or magic formula (คาถาอาคม) used in Thai folk-magic healing (ไสยศาสตร์); the name invokes the living, personal, exalted Christ himself, not a technique channeling impersonal power. Signs and wonders must be distinguished from the sacred potency ascribed to amulets and holy objects (วัตถุมงคล), already flagged in the baseline for power_of_god.
Persecution and Bold Witness
Thai name: การถูกข่มเหงและการเป็นพยานอย่างกล้าหาญ
Key terms: witness, boldness, stoning, defense_testimony, roman_citizenship
Review routing: Human theologian
Spirit-given ‘boldness’ (ใจกล้า) must be presented as courage rooted in the truth of the gospel, not natural bravado or aggressive confrontation, which Thai honor/face-culture (การเสียหน้า/รักษาหน้า) could otherwise read negatively as socially disruptive self-assertion. ‘Witness’ (พยาน) must convey formal, authoritative eyewitness testimony, not a subjective personal-experience testimonial common in Thai popular spirituality.
The Great Commission Fulfilled
Thai name: พระมหาบัญชาที่สำเร็จเป็นจริง
Key terms: mission, kingdom_of_god, gentiles, witness, boldness
Review routing: Native speaker review
The book’s overarching narrative arc (Jerusalem to Rome, ‘to the end of the earth’) must be presented as the gospel’s own inherent, God-driven expansion, not framed in terms that could read as foreign cultural imposition or an attack on Thai Buddhist national identity; use พันธกิจ (established religion-neutral mission term) consistently over religion-propagation language.
Divine Providence and Sovereignty
Thai name: การทรงดูแลรักษาและความเป็นเจ้าเหนือทุกสิ่งของพระเจ้า
Key terms: providence, angel_of_the_lord, whole_counsel_of_god, casting_lots
Review routing: Human theologian
God’s personal, purposive governance must never be rendered with vocabulary suggesting เวรกรรม (impersonal karmic cause and effect) or ดวง (astrological fortune) — the same caution already established in the baseline for providence. ‘Angel of the Lord’ (ทูตสวรรค์ขององค์พระผู้เป็นเจ้า) must be distinguished from เทวดา, the Buddhist-Brahmanic class of minor deities already forbidden as a substitute for ‘God’; an angel is a created, subordinate messenger, not an independently venerable deity.
Universal Human Accountability
Thai name: ความรับผิดชอบของมนุษย์ทุกคนต่อพระเจ้า
Key terms: sin, no_other_name
Review routing: Human theologian
Peter’s direct indictment of the crowd’s complicity in the crucifixion (2:23, 36) and Paul’s declaration that God ‘commands all people everywhere to repent’ (17:30) must retain unqualified universal scope, without softening into a graded merit-scale in which some are simply further along a self-improvement path than others.
Deliverance from Spiritual Darkness
Thai name: การทรงช่วยให้พ้นจากความมืดฝ่ายวิญญาณ
Key terms: light_and_darkness_power_of_satan, sorcery_magic, magic_books_burned
Review routing: Human theologian
‘From darkness to light’ must not be assimilated to Buddhist enlightenment (โพธิ, ปัญญาที่บรรลุได้ด้วยตนเอง) attained through the believer’s own insight and discipline — this light is God’s own rescuing gift, received, not self-attained. ‘Satan’ (ซาตาน) must be presented as a real, personal, defeated-but-active adversary, distinguished from Māra (มาร), the Buddhist personification of temptation and death operating within a self-liberation cosmology rather than a cosmology of rescue by a personal Savior.
Renunciation of Occult Practice
Thai name: การเลิกละการปฏิบัติไสยศาสตร์
Key terms: sorcery_magic, magic_books_burned, name_of_jesus_invoked
Review routing: Human theologian
Directly names practices with a live Thai parallel — paid spiritual services, amulets, charm-objects, and fortune-telling (สะเดาะเคราะห์, การดูดวง, เครื่องรางของขลัง, ไสยศาสตร์). Simon Magus’s and Elymas’s condemnation for seeking spiritual power for personal gain, and the Ephesian believers’ public burning of magic books, must be preserved with full force as a definitive break from occult practice upon conversion — a teaching point of direct pastoral relevance for Thai converts.
Medium Risk Doctrines
The Church as Community
Thai name: คริสตจักรในฐานะประชาคมแห่งความเชื่อ
Key terms: church, disciples, added_to_the_church, breaking_of_bread, held_all_things_in_common, christians, hellenists, deacon_serving_tables
Review routing: Native speaker review
The early church’s radical, voluntary economic solidarity (‘held all things in common’) must be distinguished from institutional monastic communal property (จตุปัจจัยของสงฆ์), since this is Spirit-motivated generosity among a lay community of equals, not a rule binding a religious specialist class. ‘Disciples’ (สาวก) is genuinely shared vocabulary with Thai Buddhism (a disciple of the Buddha); context must always anchor it explicitly to Christ.
Church Governance and Leadership
Thai name: การปกครองและการเป็นผู้นำในคริสตจักร
Key terms: appointing_elders, overseers, deacon_serving_tables, apostolic_decree
Review routing: Native speaker review
Appointed elders/overseers (ผู้ปกครอง/ผู้ดูแล) must be distinguished from generic social deference to elders by age (ผู้ใหญ่) and from a Buddhist sangha elder monk’s institutional authority (พระเถระ, เจ้าอาวาส); this is a specific, appointed spiritual-shepherding office modeled on Christ, not an automatic status conferred by age.
Referenced passages