Doctrine Analysis
11 Doctrine Analysis — Acts 1–28 (Full-Book Coverage)
Purpose
This document is the full doctrine matrix for the Acts curriculum, required by PRD Phase 1 Steps 4–5. It is generated to be fully consistent with assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json: identical doctrine set (41 doctrines), identical risk tiers, identical review routing. It extends the registry in two directions required for Phase 2 planning:
- Maps every registry doctrine to one of the nine named curriculum doctrines supplied in the curriculum parameters, so lesson writers can see how granular doctrines cluster under the book’s core teaching units.
- Provides a chapter-by-chapter coverage table for Acts 1–28, confirming every chapter contributes identifiable, load-bearing doctrinal content — satisfying the full-book-coverage mandate. No chapter in Acts required a “reviewed, no new doctrine” placeholder; every chapter carries at least one load-bearing doctrine, though weight varies (e.g., Acts 2, 10, 13, 15 are especially dense; Acts 18, 25, 27 are comparatively light but still doctrinally active).
Core passage note: Acts 2:1–41 is the theological anchor of this curriculum (Pentecost, Peter’s sermon, the 3,000 converts) and is the single densest doctrinal chapter in the book, but it is not the boundary of this analysis. All 28 chapters are covered below.
Part 1 — Full Doctrine Matrix (41 Doctrines, Registry-Consistent)
| # | Doctrine | Curriculum Category | Risk | Vietnamese Doctrine Name | Key Supporting Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk Summary | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Holy Spirit and Pentecost | Holy Spirit and Pentecost | Critical | Đức Thánh Linh và Lễ Ngũ Tuần | 1:5,8; 2:1-4; 2:16-18; 2:33; 2:38 | Must be sharply distinguished from spirit-possession/mediumship (đồng bóng); believer’s own agency is heightened, never displaced. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Spirit-Filling and Believer’s Agency | Holy Spirit and Pentecost | Critical | Sự Đầy Dẫy Đức Thánh Linh và Ý Chí của Người Tin | 2:4; 4:8,31; 6:3; 9:17; 13:9 | Repeated fillings are conscious empowerments for tasks, not recurring trance-possession (hầu đồng). | Human theologian |
| 3 | Speaking in Tongues | Holy Spirit and Pentecost | Critical | Nói Các Thứ Tiếng Khác | 2:4-11; 10:46; 19:6 | Real, intelligible human languages confirmed by named nationalities; never ecstatic/unintelligible trance-speech. | Human theologian |
| 4 | The Gift of the Holy Spirit (the Person) | Holy Spirit and Pentecost | Critical | Sự Ban Tặng Chính Đức Thánh Linh | 2:38; 8:20; 10:45; 11:17 | Distinguish from plural ân tứ thuộc linh; Simon’s purchase attempt exposes risk of treating the Spirit as transactable power. | Human theologian |
| 5 | Deity and Personhood of the Holy Spirit | Holy Spirit and Pentecost | Critical | Thần Tính và Nhân Vị của Đức Thánh Linh | 5:3-4,9; 13:2; 16:6-7 | Lying to the Spirit = lying to God; a moral offense against a personal God, not a ritual offense against an impersonal folk spirit (thần linh). | Human theologian |
| 6 | Fulfillment of Prophecy | Great Commission Fulfilled | Medium | Sự Ứng Nghiệm Lời Tiên Tri | 2:16-21; 3:18,24; 13:32-33; 15:15-18; 17:11; 21:10-11 | Linear, one-time OT-to-NT fulfillment; must not read as cyclical (luân hồi/kiếp) time. | Native speaker review |
| 7 | Messianic Promise | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | High | Lời Hứa về Đấng Mê-si-a | 2:31,36; 3:18,20; 17:3; 18:5,28; 26:23 | Apply the Đấng Mê-si-a / Đấng Christ distinction consistently (see 08_core_glossary Section C). | Human theologian |
| 8 | Resurrection of Christ | Great Commission Fulfilled (foundational Christology) | Critical | Sự Sống Lại của Đấng Christ | 2:24-32; 3:15; 4:2,10,33; 13:30-37; 17:31-32; 23:6-8; 26:23 | Never đầu thai/luân hồi; “loosed the pains of death” (2:24) must not echo Buddhist giải thoát khỏi vòng sinh tử. | Human theologian |
| 9 | Deity of Christ | Great Commission Fulfilled (foundational Christology) | Critical | Thần Tính của Đấng Christ | 2:36; 3:13-15; 7:56; 9:20 | Co-equal, eternal deity; not a deified folk hero (đền-worship) or enlightened teacher. | Human theologian |
| 10 | Sonship of Christ | Great Commission Fulfilled (foundational Christology) | Critical | Địa Vị Con của Đấng Christ | 9:20; 13:33 | Eternal, unique Sonship; not a title claimed by an ancestor/folk-hero spirit. | Human theologian |
| 11 | Lordship of Christ | Great Commission Fulfilled (foundational Christology) | High | Quyền Làm Chúa của Đấng Christ | 2:21,34-36; 10:36; 16:31; 17:31 | 2:36’s climax must carry the same rigor as Romans 10:9; exclusive, supreme Lordship. | Human theologian |
| 12 | Ascension of Christ | Great Commission Fulfilled (foundational Christology) | High | Sự Thăng Thiên của Đấng Christ | 1:9-11; 2:33-35 | Bodily, historical, permanent ascent; not a shamanic soul-journey or temporary heavenly visit. | Human theologian |
| 13 | The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | High | Tin Lành cho Người Do Thái và Dân Ngoại | 1:8; 10:1-48; 11:1-18; 13:46-48; 15:7-11; 28:28 | Removal of ceremonial-purity barrier ≠ removal of ancestor-offering food concerns; “no partiality” (10:34) must stay unqualified. | Human theologian |
| 14 | Unity of Jews and Gentiles | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | Medium | Sự Hiệp Một của Người Do Thái và Dân Ngoại | 11:18; 15:8-9,19-21 | Requires OT/NT background; low direct cultural-analogue risk beyond unfamiliarity. | Native speaker review |
| 15 | Repentance and Baptism | Repentance and Baptism | High | Sự Ăn Năn và Báp-têm | 2:38; 3:19; 8:36-38; 16:31-33; 19:1-5; 22:16; 26:20 | Ăn năn ≠ Buddhist sám hối (self-effort karma-clearing); báp-têm is not ritual purification causing salvation apart from faith. | Human theologian |
| 16 | Salvation | Repentance and Baptism | Critical | Sự Cứu Rỗi | 2:21,40,47; 4:12; 11:14; 13:26,47; 16:17,30-31 | Never sự giải thoát; 4:12’s exclusivity resists pluralist softening in Vietnam’s multi-religion context. | Human theologian |
| 17 | Justification apart from the Law | Justification apart from the Law | Critical | Sự Xưng Công Bình Ngoài Luật Pháp | 13:38-39; 15:1-11,19-21 | 13:38-39 must match the Romans sự xưng công bình rendering exactly; Council’s answer must not reintroduce a works-requirement. | Human theologian |
| 18 | Faith | Justification apart from the Law | Medium | Đức Tin | 3:16; 14:27; 16:31; 20:21; 26:18 | Personal trust in Christ specifically; low ambiguity. | Native speaker review |
| 19 | Grace | Justification apart from the Law | High | Ân Điển | 8:20; 11:23; 13:43; 14:26; 15:11; 18:27; 20:24,32 | 15:11 grounds both Jew and Gentile salvation in grace; Simon’s money-for-gift attempt (8:18-20) reinforces rejection of phước đức/công đức/ơn nghĩa. | Human theologian |
| 20 | Council and Law Observance | Justification apart from the Law | Medium | Công Hội Giê-ru-sa-lem và Vấn Đề Giữ Luật Pháp | 15:1-29; 21:20-25 | Abstaining from blood/food-sacrificed-to-idols resonates with cúng and huyết/tiết canh practices; needs explicit pastoral framing. | Native speaker review |
| 21 | The Church as Community | Church as Community | Medium | Hội Thánh là Một Cộng Đồng | 2:42-47; 4:32-35; 6:1-6; 11:19-26; 14:23; 15:1-35; 20:17-38 | Voluntary grace-generosity, not forced communalism or clan obligation; shared meals ≠ cúng giỗ. | Native speaker review |
| 22 | Sainthood (All Believers as Holy Ones) | Church as Community | High | Danh Xưng Thánh Đồ của Mọi Người Tin | 9:13,32,41; 26:10 | Always các thánh đồ in full; never bare các thánh (deified folk heroes). | Human theologian |
| 23 | Sanctification | Church as Community | Medium | Sự Nên Thánh | 20:32; 26:18 | Spirit’s ongoing holiness-work; distinct from ritual purification. | Native speaker review |
| 24 | Adoption into God’s Family and Inheritance | Church as Community | Medium | Sự Làm Con Nuôi và Cơ Nghiệp trong Gia Đình Đức Chúa Trời | 20:32; 26:18 | Grace-based sonship, not Confucian filial hierarchy (hiếu) or ancestral-merit inheritance. | Native speaker review |
| 25 | Laying On of Hands and Commissioning | Church as Community / Apostolic Authority | Medium | Sự Đặt Tay và Sự Ủy Nhiệm | 6:6; 8:17-19; 9:17; 13:3; 19:6 | Prayerful commissioning under the Spirit’s initiative, not folk healers’/mediums’ power-transfer touch. | Native speaker review |
| 26 | Election and Effectual Calling | Church as Community / Conversion of Paul | Medium | Sự Lựa Chọn và Sự Kêu Gọi Hữu Hiệu | 2:39; 9:15; 13:48 | Sovereign personal choice, not số mệnh (fate) or nghiệp (karma). | Native speaker review |
| 27 | Thanksgiving and Fellowship | Church as Community | Low | Sự Cảm Tạ và Sự Thông Công | 2:42,46; 27:35 | Standard low-risk terms; shared meals distinct from cúng giỗ (supplementary teaching note recommended). | Automated review |
| 28 | Fasting and Spiritual Discipline | Church as Community | Low | Sự Kiêng Ăn và Kỷ Luật Thuộc Linh | 13:2-3; 14:23; 24:25 | Gospel-motivated discipline, not merit-generating Buddhist practice (supplementary note recommended). | Automated review |
| 29 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | High | Uy Quyền Sứ Đồ và Các Phép Lạ | 2:22,43; 3:1-10; 4:33; 5:12-16; 8:6-13; 14:3; 19:11-12 | Divine attestation vs. counterfeit power (tà thuật, đồng bóng); laying on of hands ≠ ritual power-transfer technique. | Human theologian |
| 30 | Sorcery and Counterfeit Spiritual Power | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | Critical | Tà Thuật và Quyền Lực Giả Mạo | 8:9-24; 13:6-11; 16:16-18; 19:13-19 | Direct collision with living Vietnamese occult practice (thầy pháp, bùa chú, cầu cơ, thầy bói, gọi hồn); real power, decisively defeated by Christ. | Human theologian |
| 31 | Angelic Ministry | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | Medium | Chức Vụ của Thiên Sứ | 1:10-11; 5:19; 8:26; 10:3-7; 12:7-11,23; 27:23 | A created, personal servant of the one true God; distinct from folk thần linh/ancestor-spirit categories. | Native speaker review |
| 32 | Persecution and Bold Witness | Persecution and Bold Witness | High | Sự Bắt Bớ và Chứng Đạo Cách Dạn Dĩ | 4:1-31; 5:17-42; 6:8-8:1; 12:1-19; 14:19-20; 16:19-40; 21:27-23:35; 25:1-27 | Spirit-given boldness, not mere social defiance or honor/shame (mất mặt/được mặt) dynamics. | Human theologian |
| 33 | Martyrdom of Stephen | Persecution and Bold Witness | High | Sự Tuẫn Đạo của Ê-tiên | 7:54-60 | Genuine encounter with the risen, glorified Christ; not softened into generic piety or folk near-death/spirit-encounter categories. | Human theologian |
| 34 | Witness and Testimony | Persecution and Bold Witness | High | Chức Vụ Làm Chứng Nhân | 1:8,22; 2:32; 4:20,33; 5:32; 10:39-41; 13:31; 22:15; 25:8,11; 26:16 | Legal eyewitness-testimony weight to a historical, bodily resurrection, consistent across all 28 chapters. | Human theologian |
| 35 | Divine Judgment and Universal Human Accountability | Persecution and Bold Witness / Justification | High | Sự Phán Xét của Đức Chúa Trời và Trách Nhiệm của Mọi Người | 17:31; 23:6-8 (resurrection dispute); 24:25 | Future judgment before a personal God, not impersonal karmic reckoning. | Human theologian |
| 36 | Conversion of Paul | Conversion of Paul | Critical | Sự Cải Đạo của Phao-lô | 9:1-19; 22:3-16; 26:12-18 | Genuine, historical, Christ-initiated encounter verified by life-change and commissioning; not folk visionary/ancestor-contact experience nor mere affiliation-switch. | Human theologian |
| 37 | ”The Way” as the Exclusive Path of Salvation | Conversion of Paul / Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | Critical | ”Đạo” là Con Đường Cứu Rỗi Duy Nhất | 9:2; 19:9,23; 22:4; 24:14,22 | Bare “Đạo” reads as one path among many (Đạo Phật, Đạo Khổng, đạo ông bà); must always be qualified. | Human theologian |
| 38 | The Great Commission Fulfilled | The Great Commission Fulfilled | High | Sự Ứng Nghiệm của Đại Mạng Lệnh | 1:8; 28:23,30-31 | Unqualified universal geographic scope; unstoppable-advance tone; no ethnic/ancestral limiting. | Human theologian |
| 39 | Providence | The Great Commission Fulfilled | Medium | Sự Quan Phòng của Đức Chúa Trời | 2:23; 17:26-28; 27:22-25 | God’s personal, purposive governance; never số trời or nghiệp. | Native speaker review |
| 40 | Mission to the Nations | The Great Commission Fulfilled / Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | Medium | Sứ Mệnh cho Muôn Dân | 1:8; 13:2-3,47; 22:21 | Proclamation-focused, not institutional/colonial-tinged terminology; sensitive to ancestor-obligation framing of conversion. | Native speaker review |
| 41 | Idols and Pagan Worship | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | Medium | Hình Tượng và Sự Thờ Lạy Ngoại Giáo | 14:11-18; 17:16-31; 19:23-41 | Direct bridge to Vietnamese polytheistic folk-deity assumptions and idol/statue veneration; “unknown god” bridge used only as Paul used it. | Native speaker review |
Registry cross-check: Critical = 13, High = 13, Medium = 13, Low = 2 (total 41), matching assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json risk_summary exactly.
Part 2 — Full Chapter Coverage Table (Acts 1–28)
Every chapter is listed. Where a chapter’s doctrinal weight is lighter, the load-bearing doctrine(s) it does carry are still named explicitly — no chapter is silently omitted, per the full-book-coverage mandate.
| Ch. | Load-Bearing Doctrines Active | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Commission Fulfilled; Ascension of Christ; Witness and Testimony; Angelic Ministry; Election and Effectual Calling (Matthias) | Sets the book’s geographic/programmatic frame (1:8) and Christ’s bodily departure. |
| 2 | CORE PASSAGE (2:1-41): Holy Spirit and Pentecost; Spirit-Filling and Agency; Speaking in Tongues; Fulfillment of Prophecy; Messianic Promise; Lordship of Christ; Resurrection of Christ; Repentance and Baptism; Salvation; Election and Effectual Calling (2:39); The Church as Community; Thanksgiving and Fellowship | Densest doctrinal chapter in the book; theological anchor of the curriculum. |
| 3 | Resurrection of Christ; Deity of Christ; Messianic Promise; Fulfillment of Prophecy; Faith; Apostolic Authority and Miracles | Healing of the lame man; Peter’s second sermon. |
| 4 | Salvation (4:12); Persecution and Bold Witness; Witness and Testimony; The Church as Community (4:32-35) | First arrest; “no other name.” |
| 5 | Deity and Personhood of the Holy Spirit (Ananias/Sapphira); Persecution and Bold Witness; Apostolic Authority and Miracles; Witness and Testimony | Spirit’s full personhood confirmed by the severity of the offense against him. |
| 6 | The Church as Community (deacons); Laying On of Hands and Commissioning; Persecution and Bold Witness (Stephen accused) | Institution of the Seven. |
| 7 | Martyrdom of Stephen; Deity of Christ (Son of Man vision); Persecution and Bold Witness | Stephen’s speech and death. |
| 8 | Gift of the Holy Spirit (Person); Grace; Sorcery and Counterfeit Power (Simon Magus); Apostolic Authority and Miracles; Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (Samaria, Ethiopian eunuch) | First geographic expansion beyond Jerusalem. |
| 9 | Conversion of Paul; Sonship of Christ; Sainthood; Election and Effectual Calling (chosen instrument); Laying On of Hands; “The Way” as Exclusive Path | Saul’s Damascus-road encounter. |
| 10 | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (Cornelius); Speaking in Tongues (10:46); Mission to the Nations | Turning point for Gentile inclusion. |
| 11 | Unity of Jews and Gentiles; Grace; Gift of the Holy Spirit (Person); Gospel to Jews and Gentiles; The Church as Community (Antioch, “Christian” coined) | Jerusalem’s approval of Gentile mission. |
| 12 | Angelic Ministry; Persecution and Bold Witness (Herod, James’s death, Peter’s rescue); Providence | Divine deliverance narrative. |
| 13 | Justification apart from the Law (13:38-39); Messianic Promise; Grace; Spirit-Filling and Agency (13:9); Election and Effectual Calling (13:48); Sonship of Christ (13:33); Sorcery and Counterfeit Power (Elymas); Mission to the Nations; Fasting and Spiritual Discipline | First missionary journey begins; book’s clearest justification statement. |
| 14 | The Church as Community (14:23, elders); Idols and Pagan Worship (Lystra); Grace; Persecution and Bold Witness | Return circuit of first journey. |
| 15 | Justification apart from the Law; Grace (15:11); Unity of Jews and Gentiles; Council and Law Observance; The Church as Community | Jerusalem Council — the book’s central doctrinal debate. |
| 16 | Sorcery and Counterfeit Power (spirit of divination); Persecution and Bold Witness (Philippian jail); Lordship of Christ (16:31); Repentance and Baptism | Second missionary journey begins; Philippi. |
| 17 | Messianic Promise (17:3); Idols and Pagan Worship (Areopagus); Divine Judgment and Accountability; Providence (17:26-28); Fulfillment of Prophecy (Berean examination) | Athens; the “unknown god” bridge. |
| 18 | Messianic Promise (18:5,28); Mission to the Nations; The Church as Community (Aquila, Priscilla, Apollos) | Corinth; comparatively lighter doctrinal chapter but still load-bearing via the Messiah-proof theme. |
| 19 | Speaking in Tongues (19:6); Sorcery and Counterfeit Power (magic books burned); Apostolic Authority and Miracles; “The Way” as Exclusive Path; Idols and Pagan Worship (Ephesus, Artemis riot) | Ephesus; strongest sorcery-confrontation narrative in the book. |
| 20 | The Church as Community (Miletus farewell); Sanctification; Adoption and Inheritance; Providence (whole counsel of God); Thanksgiving and Fellowship (breaking bread) | Paul’s pastoral farewell discourse. |
| 21 | Council and Law Observance (purification vow); Fulfillment of Prophecy (Agabus); Persecution and Bold Witness (arrest) | Return to Jerusalem; cultural-accommodation tension. |
| 22 | Conversion of Paul (retelling); Repentance and Baptism (22:16); “The Way” as Exclusive Path; Witness and Testimony | Paul’s defense before the crowd. |
| 23 | Persecution and Bold Witness (Sanhedrin, plot against Paul); Resurrection of Christ (Pharisee/Sadducee dispute extends the doctrine to the general resurrection); Divine Judgment and Accountability | Roman custody narrative begins. |
| 24 | Divine Judgment and Accountability (24:25); Faith; Repentance and Baptism (implicit); Fasting and Spiritual Discipline (self-control) | Trial before Felix. |
| 25 | Witness and Testimony (Paul’s defense); Persecution and Bold Witness (appeal to Caesar); Providence | Trial before Festus; lighter doctrinal chapter, still load-bearing via legal-witness theme. |
| 26 | Conversion of Paul (26:12-18); Sainthood (26:10); Adoption and Inheritance (26:18); Witness and Testimony (26:16); Divine Judgment and Accountability | Paul’s defense before Agrippa; fullest retelling of the Damascus-road event. |
| 27 | Providence (27:22-25); Thanksgiving and Fellowship (27:35); Angelic Ministry (27:23) | Storm and shipwreck voyage. |
| 28 | The Great Commission Fulfilled (28:23,30-31); Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (28:28); Providence (viper survival) | Book’s triumphant, unhindered-gospel close. |
Coverage confirmation: All 28 chapters carry at least one Critical-, High-, or Medium-tier doctrine from the registry; none required a “no new doctrine” placeholder. Chapters 18, 25, and 27 are the lightest in doctrinal density but remain genuinely load-bearing (Messianic Promise, Witness and Testimony, and Providence, respectively).
Phase 2 Routing Summary
- Human theologian review required (26 doctrines): all Critical-tier doctrines (13) and all High-tier doctrines (13) per the registry — unchanged from
doctrine_risk_registry.json. - Native speaker review (13 doctrines): all Medium-tier doctrines.
- Automated review only (2 doctrines): Thanksgiving and Fellowship; Fasting and Spiritual Discipline.
This matrix must be loaded alongside translation_memory.json, bible_term_registry.json (Romans baseline), 08_core_glossary.md, and assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json before any Phase 2 segment translation of Acts begins.
Critical Risk Doctrines
The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Vietnamese name: Đức Thánh Linh và Lễ Ngũ Tuần
Key terms: Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, tongues of fire, Pentecost, pour out the Spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: The Spirit’s filling of the church must be sharply distinguished from Vietnamese folk spirit-possession/mediumship (đồng bóng, bị thần/tà linh nhập), where the medium’s own will and identity are displaced. Biblical Spirit-filling empowers and heightens the believer’s own conscious agency; it never overrides it. Đức Thánh Linh must always appear in full, never bare thần linh.
Spirit-Filling and Believer’s Agency
Vietnamese name: Sự Đầy Dẫy Đức Thánh Linh và Ý Chí của Người Tin
Key terms: filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke the word of God boldly
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Repeated fillings throughout Acts (distinct from the single inaugurating Pentecost event) must consistently be taught as intensified, conscious Spirit-empowerment for specific tasks, never as recurring trance-possession episodes analogous to hầu đồng ceremonies where a spirit displaces the medium’s will.
Speaking in Tongues
Vietnamese name: Nói Các Thứ Tiếng Khác
Key terms: other tongues, other languages
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Acts 2 explicitly confirms comprehension by named nationalities, so tongues here are real, intelligible human languages. Must never be rendered or taught as ecstatic/unintelligible utterance, and must be clearly distinguished from trance-speech at Vietnamese spirit-medium ceremonies (hầu đồng), where a possessing spirit speaks through an entranced human vessel.
The Gift of the Holy Spirit (the Person, Not Merely Gifts)
Vietnamese name: Sự Ban Tặng Chính Đức Thánh Linh
Key terms: the gift of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts
Review routing: Human theologian
Must be distinguished from ân tứ thuộc linh (plural charismatic enablements, baseline term); Acts 8:18-20 (Simon’s attempted purchase) shows the danger of treating the Spirit-Person’s gift as a transactable power, a risk heightened by Vietnamese folk assumptions that spiritual power can be bought, inherited, or ritually transferred.
Resurrection of Christ
Vietnamese name: Sự Sống Lại của Đấng Christ
Key terms: resurrection, raised, loosed the pains of death
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Bodily, historical, once-for-all resurrection. Sự sống lại must never be rendered with đầu thai/luân hồi (rebirth into the cycle of samsara), and the imagery of death’s cords being ‘loosed’ (2:24) must not echo giải thoát khỏi vòng sinh tử, the Buddhist image of release from the cycle of death and rebirth.
Deity of Christ
Vietnamese name: Thần Tính của Đấng Christ
Key terms: Lord and Christ, Son of Man, Holy and Righteous One
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Co-equal, eternal divine nature; not a deified historical hero venerated at folk temples (đền) or an enlightened teacher. Stephen’s vision of the Son of Man (7:56) is a divine self-disclosure, not a folk-visionary contact experience.
Sonship of Christ
Vietnamese name: Địa Vị Con của Đấng Christ
Key terms: Son of God
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Eternal, unique Sonship, not a title claimed by a deified ancestor or folk-hero spirit; must retain full baseline weight even though Acts’ explicit occurrences are fewer than Romans’.
Salvation
Vietnamese name: Sự Cứu Rỗi
Key terms: salvation, saved, call on the name of the Lord, no other name
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Never sự giải thoát (liberation from the cycle of rebirth, the central Buddhist soteriological goal). Acts 4:12’s exclusivity claim (‘no other name’) must resist any softening toward religious pluralism, given the Vietnamese context of multiple coexisting religious paths regarded as equally valid.
Justification apart from the Law
Vietnamese name: Sự Xưng Công Bình Ngoài Luật Pháp
Key terms: justified, circumcision, yoke of the law
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts 13:38-39 is the book’s clearest single statement of this doctrine and must match the Romans rendering of sự xưng công bình precisely for curriculum-wide consistency; the Jerusalem Council’s negative answer on circumcision (Ch. 15) must be preserved without reintroducing a works-requirement.
Sorcery and Counterfeit Spiritual Power
Vietnamese name: Tà Thuật và Quyền Lực Giả Mạo
Key terms: sorcery, spirit of divination, burned the books of magic
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Direct collision with living Vietnamese occult practice (thầy pháp, bùa chú, cầu cơ, thầy bói, gọi hồn). Acts consistently affirms both the reality of such spiritual power and its total defeat by Christ’s superior authority; teaching must neither dismiss it as mere superstition nor present it as a morally neutral alternative ‘spiritual technology’ alongside apostolic miracle.
Conversion of Paul
Vietnamese name: Sự Cải Đạo của Phao-lô
Key terms: chosen instrument, turn/convert, heavenly vision, turn from darkness to light
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Paul’s Damascus-road encounter must be taught as a genuine, historical, Christ-initiated self-revelation verified by radical life-change and apostolic commissioning — not modeled on folk visionary/trance experiences attributed to ancestor or spirit contact, and not reduced to a mere change of religious affiliation as a social/institutional switch.
Deity and Personhood of the Holy Spirit
Vietnamese name: Thần Tính và Nhân Vị của Đức Thánh Linh
Key terms: lied to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit said
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Ananias’s and Sapphira’s sin of lying to the Holy Spirit (5:3-4) is explicitly equated with lying to God himself, confirming the Spirit’s full personhood and deity; this is a direct moral offense against a personal, holy God, not a ritual offense against an impersonal or easily-placated folk spirit (thần linh) as commonly conceived in Vietnamese folk religion.
”The Way” as the Exclusive Path of Salvation
Vietnamese name: “Đạo” là Con Đường Cứu Rỗi Duy Nhất
Key terms: the Way
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Bare ‘Đạo’ in Vietnamese names any religion or philosophical path (Đạo Phật, Đạo Khổng, Đạo Cao Đài, đạo ông bà). Left unqualified, this self-designation of the Christian movement would read as merely one path among many equally valid options, directly undermining the exclusivity of salvation in Christ (cf. 4:12). Must always be qualified (Đạo của Chúa, con đường theo Đấng Christ) with an explicit teaching note.
High Risk Doctrines
Messianic Promise
Vietnamese name: Lời Hứa về Đấng Mê-si-a
Key terms: messiah, Christ, God’s Servant, anointed
Review routing: Human theologian
Vietnamese religious tradition has no rival messianic figure, but the Đấng Mê-si-a / Đấng Christ distinction (OT-fulfillment argument vs. ordinary running title) must be applied consistently per the glossary’s transliteration convention; ambiguous cases are flagged for theologian review.
Lordship of Christ
Vietnamese name: Quyền Làm Chúa của Đấng Christ
Key terms: Lord, Lord of all, Jesus is Lord
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts 2:36’s climactic ‘God has made this Jesus… both Lord and Christ’ must be rendered with the same rigor as the Romans 10:9 confession; exclusive, supreme Lordship, distinguished from generic respectful address common in Vietnamese social register.
Ascension of Christ
Vietnamese name: Sự Thăng Thiên của Đấng Christ
Key terms: taken up, ascension, went up
Review routing: Human theologian
Christ’s bodily, historical, and permanent ascension must not be pictured as a shamanic soul-journey or a temporary heavenly visit found in some Vietnamese folk traditions; he ascended bodily and will return the same way (1:11).
The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Vietnamese name: Tin Lành cho Người Do Thái và Dân Ngoại
Key terms: Gentiles, no partiality, common or unclean, God-fearer
Review routing: Human theologian
The removal of the Mosaic ceremonial-purity barrier (10:14-15) must be distinguished from Vietnamese ancestor-offering food purity concerns (cúng); the unqualified statement that God shows no partiality (10:34) must be preserved without ethnic or ancestral-lineage softening.
Repentance and Baptism
Vietnamese name: Sự Ăn Năn và Báp-têm
Key terms: repent, baptism, forgiveness of sins
Review routing: Human theologian
Repentance (ăn năn) must be clearly distinguished from Buddhist sám hối, a confessional/merit-purification practice aimed at clearing negative karma through one’s own ritual effort; baptism (báp-têm) must not be assimilated to ritual purification rites, nor treated as itself causing salvation apart from repentance and faith.
Grace
Vietnamese name: Ân Điển
Key terms: grace, the gift of God, bought with money
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts 15:11 grounds both Jewish and Gentile salvation entirely in grace, settling the Jerusalem Council debate; Simon’s attempt to purchase the Spirit’s gift with silver (8:18-20) sharply reinforces the baseline’s rejection of phước đức/công đức (accumulated merit) and ơn nghĩa (reciprocal-debt favor) as models for God’s gift.
Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Vietnamese name: Uy Quyền Sứ Đồ và Các Phép Lạ
Key terms: signs and wonders, power of God, laying on of hands, in the name of Jesus
Review routing: Human theologian
Signs and wonders (dấu lạ và phép lạ) worked in Jesus’s name must be sharply distinguished throughout from tà thuật (folk sorcery) — true divine attestation versus counterfeit power claimed by folk sorcerers or mediums (thầy pháp, đồng bóng); laying on of hands must be distinguished from ritual power-transfer techniques.
Persecution and Bold Witness
Vietnamese name: Sự Bắt Bớ và Chứng Đạo Cách Dạn Dĩ
Key terms: boldness, witness, Sanhedrin, persecution
Review routing: Human theologian
Spirit-given boldness (sự dạn dĩ) under threat must be distinguished from mere social defiance or loss/gain of honor (mất mặt/được mặt) dynamics prominent in Vietnamese social relations; this is Spirit-empowered testimony before a personal God, sustained through suffering.
Martyrdom of Stephen
Vietnamese name: Sự Tuẫn Đạo của Ê-tiên
Key terms: witness, stoning, Son of Man
Review routing: Human theologian
The semantic bridge from chứng nhân (witness) to a martyrdom sense begins here; Stephen’s dying prayer and vision of the Son of Man must be preserved as a genuine encounter with the risen, glorified Christ, not softened into generic pious language or reframed through folk near-death/spirit-encounter categories.
Witness and Testimony
Vietnamese name: Chức Vụ Làm Chứng Nhân
Key terms: witnesses, testified
Review routing: Human theologian
The apostles’ authority rests on eyewitness testimony to a historical, bodily resurrection, not received tradition or spiritual insight alone; chứng nhân must carry legal eyewitness weight throughout, consistently rendered across all 28 chapters.
Sainthood (All Believers as Holy Ones)
Vietnamese name: Danh Xưng Thánh Đồ của Mọi Người Tin
Key terms: saints, holy ones
Review routing: Human theologian
All believers are saints; not a class of deified historical heroes (như Thánh Trần) worshipped at folk temples (đền). Must always appear as các thánh đồ in full, never shortened to bare các thánh.
The Great Commission Fulfilled
Vietnamese name: Sự Ứng Nghiệm của Đại Mạng Lệnh
Key terms: to the end of the earth, without hindrance, kingdom of God
Review routing: Human theologian
The book’s geographic structure (Jerusalem to Rome) and triumphant closing note of unhindered gospel proclamation must retain unqualified universal scope and an unstoppable-advance tone, resisting any reading that limits the commission by ethnicity, region, or ancestral lineage.
Divine Judgment and Universal Human Accountability
Vietnamese name: Sự Phán Xét của Đức Chúa Trời và Trách Nhiệm của Mọi Người
Key terms: judgment to come, righteousness and self-control
Review routing: Human theologian
Future judgment before a personal God who holds all people accountable must not be rendered or taught as an impersonal karmic reckoning that distributes consequences automatically without a personal judge.
Medium Risk Doctrines
Fulfillment of Prophecy
Vietnamese name: Sự Ứng Nghiệm Lời Tiên Tri
Key terms: last days, prophet, prophecy, it is written
Review routing: Native speaker review
Linear, one-time historical fulfillment (Joel’s OT promise to its Pentecost fulfillment) must be retained, not the cyclical time-frame of Buddhist cosmology (luân hồi, kiếp).
Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Vietnamese name: Sự Hiệp Một của Người Do Thái và Dân Ngoại
Key terms: one body, no distinction, God’s people
Review routing: Native speaker review
Requires OT/NT background teaching on the Jew-Gentile divide; comparatively low direct cultural-analogue risk in the Vietnamese context beyond general unfamiliarity with the historical division.
Faith
Vietnamese name: Đức Tin
Key terms: faith, believe
Review routing: Native speaker review
Personal trust in Christ specifically named as the object of healing faith (3:16) and salvation faith (16:31); well-established term with comparatively low ambiguity risk.
The Church as Community
Vietnamese name: Hội Thánh là Một Cộng Đồng
Key terms: church, fellowship, breaking of bread, held all things in common, elders
Review routing: Native speaker review
The community’s voluntary sharing (2:44-45; 4:32-35) must be taught as grace-motivated generosity, not a forced communal-ownership system or Confucian clan-obligation; shared meals (‘breaking of bread,’ 2:42,46) must be distinguished from ancestor-offering meals shared ritually with the deceased (cúng giỗ).
Election and Effectual Calling
Vietnamese name: Sự Lựa Chọn và Sự Kêu Gọi Hữu Hiệu
Key terms: called, chosen instrument, appointed to eternal life
Review routing: Native speaker review
God’s sovereign, personal choice and summons must not be rendered as số mệnh (fixed impersonal fate) or nghiệp (karma); reuses the baseline election framework.
Providence
Vietnamese name: Sự Quan Phòng của Đức Chúa Trời
Key terms: determined plan and foreknowledge, God’s ordering of the nations, the voyage narrative
Review routing: Native speaker review
God’s personal, purposive governance — of Christ’s death, of the nations’ boundaries, and of Paul’s storm-tossed voyage — must never be rendered as số trời (impersonal fate-dispensing ‘Heaven’) or nghiệp (karma).
Adoption into God’s Family and Inheritance
Vietnamese name: Sự Làm Con Nuôi và Cơ Nghiệp trong Gia Đình Đức Chúa Trời
Key terms: inheritance, sanctified, among the saints
Review routing: Native speaker review
The grace-given inheritance language must not be recast through Confucian filial-duty hierarchy (hiếu) or as an ancestral inheritance secured through ritual merit; it is grace-based sonship, consistent with the baseline adoption doctrine.
Sanctification
Vietnamese name: Sự Nên Thánh
Key terms: sanctified, holiness
Review routing: Native speaker review
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy; well-established term with comparatively low syncretism risk, distinct from ritual purification.
Laying On of Hands and Commissioning
Vietnamese name: Sự Đặt Tay và Sự Ủy Nhiệm
Key terms: laying on of hands, set apart for ministry
Review routing: Native speaker review
Must be distinguished from folk healers’ or spirit-mediums’ ritual touch (thầy pháp truyền năng lượng) that claims to transmit impersonal power mechanically; this is prayerful commissioning under the Spirit’s sovereign initiative, not a power-transfer technique.
The Jerusalem Council and Law Observance
Vietnamese name: Công Hội Giê-ru-sa-lem và Vấn Đề Giữ Luật Pháp
Key terms: circumcision, yoke, things sacrificed to idols, blood
Review routing: Native speaker review
The Council’s minimal-requirements list (15:20,29), especially abstaining from food sacrificed to idols and from blood, has direct cultural resonance with Vietnamese ancestor-offering (cúng) and blood-dish (huyết, tiết canh) practices; requires explicit pastoral framing distinguishing first-century application from underlying principle.
Angelic Ministry
Vietnamese name: Chức Vụ của Thiên Sứ
Key terms: angel
Review routing: Native speaker review
An angel (thiên sứ) is a created, personal servant obedient to the one true God, distinct from the broad Vietnamese folk category of thần linh (spirits/local deities) or ancestor-spirits with independent agendas.
Mission to the Nations
Vietnamese name: Sứ Mệnh cho Muôn Dân
Key terms: sent, set apart for ministry, to the Gentiles
Review routing: Native speaker review
Proclamation-focused mission language, kept descriptive rather than borrowing institutional or colonial-tinged religious-propagation terminology; sensitive where family ancestor-veneration obligations make conversion feel like abandoning family duty.
Idols and Pagan Worship
Vietnamese name: Hình Tượng và Sự Thờ Lạy Ngoại Giáo
Key terms: gods in human form, the unknown god, idols made with hands
Review routing: Native speaker review
Paul’s rebukes of pagan polytheism (14:15) and idol-worship (19:26) provide a direct teaching bridge to Vietnamese polytheistic folk-deity assumptions and idol/statue veneration; the unknown-god bridge (17:23) must be used only as Paul used it, never as validation of a folk supreme-heaven figure as sufficient knowledge of the true God.
Low Risk Doctrines
Thanksgiving and Fellowship
Vietnamese name: Sự Cảm Tạ và Sự Thông Công
Key terms: thanksgiving, fellowship, breaking of bread
Review routing: Automated review
Standard terms with minimal doctrinal risk; shared meals should be noted as distinct from ancestor-offering meals (cúng giỗ) in supplementary teaching material, though the terms themselves carry low translation risk.
Fasting and Spiritual Discipline
Vietnamese name: Sự Kiêng Ăn và Kỷ Luật Thuộc Linh
Key terms: fasting, self-control
Review routing: Automated review
Standard spiritual-discipline terms; minimal doctrinal risk, though a supplementary note distinguishing gospel-motivated discipline from Buddhist merit-generating practice is recommended for teaching contexts.
Referenced passages