How do non-denominational Christians pick a church?

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My question was how do you know that these doctrines are essential, and the others are secondary?

Does the Bible tell you this? How do you know that Malachi 1:11 is not an essential but John 3:16 is?

The only way you know that the doctrines proclaimed in the Creed are essential is because an outside entity–not the Bible–told you so!
Actually I would widle down the list a little. I beleive in each of these, but I dont know that I would consider them all to be essential for salvation.
 
Indeed it is!

Here are some things that you might possibly believe that are not part of Sacred Scripture:

-public revelation ended with the death of the last apostle
-there will be no new apostles
-the canon of Scripture is closed
-the Trinity
-the hypostatic union (that is, that Jesus had 2 natures and two wills: divine and human)
-Scripture interprets itself

Now, back to your statement above: why do you believe that because something has been so widely used and accepted that it’s ok? Do you believe that it’s possible that this acceptance could be wrong? That is, if these were fallible men that determined the canon of Scripture, how do you know that the Gospel of Thomas is not truly inspired?
If anyone was trying to make a compelling case for why it was left out I would hear them out. To my knowledge no one has.
 
Actually I would widle down the list a little. I beleive in each of these, but I dont know that I would consider them all to be essential for salvation.
I don’t understand. Really.

Where is it that you’re finding what you "would consider to be an essential’.

If there’s no list in Scripture, then [SIGN1]it’s a man-made tradition [/SIGN1]that you’re using to determine what’s an essential.

So if I say I believe Malachi 1:11 is essential to salvation, and you say it isn’t…and there’s no where in Scripture to tell us who’s right, then what?
 
If anyone was trying to make a compelling case for why it was left out I would hear them out. To my knowledge no one has.
The compelling case is this:

God’s Word is not confined to the Sacred Scriptures. The entire Deposit of Faith is illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition, and the Church’s Magisterium.
 
And what tells you what’s the most important and the least important?
the things that are repeated and that are stated to be necessary for salvation… When Ruth and Boaz were on the threshing floor what happened? is understanding this passage necessary for salvation. Is it not more important to understand why Christ died on the cross ?
 
I don’t understand. Really.

Where is it that you’re finding what you "would consider to be an essential’.

If there’s no list in Scripture, then [SIGN1]it’s a man-made tradition [/SIGN1]that you’re using to determine what’s an essential.

So if I say I believe Malachi 1:11 is essential to salvation, and you say it isn’t…and there’s no where in Scripture to tell us who’s right, then what?
He endured being human, subjected to insults and humiliation,He was willing to die a horrible death. He went through all that and didnt include in the Bible what was necessary to make it effectual for my salvation? I believe it will be reasonably self evident if it will be the difference between heaven or hell for thousands of people who wish to serve Him.
 
the things that are repeated and that are stated to be necessary for salvation… When Ruth and Boaz were on the threshing floor what happened? is understanding this passage necessary for salvation. Is it not more important to understand why Christ died on the cross ?
So then these verses below are what you consider essential beliefs, essential things that are necessary for our salvation?

We are saved…

By believing in Christ (Jn 3:16; Acts 16:31)

By repentance (Acts 2:38; 2 Pet 3:9)

By baptism (Jn 3:5; 1 Pet 3:21; Titus 3:5)

By the work of the Spirit (Jn 3:5; 2 Cor 3:6)

By declaring with our mouths (Lk 12:8; Rom 10:9)

By coming to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4; Heb 10:26)

By works (Rom 2:6-7; James 2:24)

By grace (Acts 15:11; Eph 2:8)

By his blood (Rom 5:9; Heb 9:22)

By his righteousness (Rom 5:17; 2 Pet 1:1)

By his Cross (Eph 2:16; Col 2:14)

By eating his flesh (John 6)
 
He endured being human, subjected to insults and humiliation,He was willing to die a horrible death. He went through all that and didnt include in the Bible what was necessary to make it effectual for my salvation? I believe it will be reasonably self evident if it will be the difference between heaven or hell for thousands of people who wish to serve Him.
I don’t understand what you’re saying here MRL.

As Catholics we believe that there are essentials–the CC has determined what these are.

You, however, as a non-Catholic, must rely on Scripture to tell you these things.

And my point is: Scripture does not tell you what’s an essential doctrine.

You must rely on some other authority to tell you what’s essential.

What authority is that? Your own authority?
 
My question was how do you know that these doctrines are essential, and the others are secondary?

Does the Bible tell you this? How do you know that Malachi 1:11 is not an essential but John 3:16 is?

The only way you know that the doctrines proclaimed in the Creed are essential is because an outside entity–not the Bible–told you so!
What? It all has relevance.

Let me illustrate with a little story.

Bob is standing at the corner of main and state street with a group of people. Suddenly two bank robbers burst out of the corner bank. Bob is startled and spills his coffee on Bruno, a great dane. Bruno is rather beastly so his master,Fran, wraps the leash several times around her wrist. When the extremely hot coffee hits Bruno, he shoots out into the street dragging Fran behind. A car being driven by Fred swerves to miss Fran, but unfortately mows down Bruno. 15 seconds before this, Bruno had tried to pee on Bob’s leg, and Bob chastised Fran. Fran, had turned to look at Bob and saw the robbers heading with guns drawn, but could not speak. When the robbers burst out the door, they immediately head into the street pushing several people out of the way. One is Elsie, a little old lady out for her daily constitutional. Elsie falls into the gutter and breaks her hip and will eventually die from her injuries. One of the bank robbers, for a moments time, stops to aid Elsie. Being an old codger, Elsie slaps the robber so hard, it knocks free his Dead President mask just enough to show a birth mark on his chin that remarkedly resembled the State of Texas. This is well known birth mark of the Mayor. The robbers jump into the car driven by Fred and drive off. All of this is captured on the corner street camera, designed to catch red light runners, which actually also caught Jessica running a red light as she watched it all happen.

When the tape is shown, is the fact that Bob appeared to tilting his cup on Bruno relevant to Elsie? No. Is it relevant to Fran? Yes. Is the fact that Fred attempted to miss hitting Fran relevant to Elsie? No. Is it to Fran? Yes. Is the fact that the State of Texas can be seen on the video relevant to everyone? Yes.

The whole point to this little exercise is, not everything will be relevant to everyone. Somethings will be relevant to all. But the tape can be used for a variety of ways to assist a variety of people for a variety of needs. The scripture is like this.
 
the things that are repeated and that are stated to be necessary for salvation… When Ruth and Boaz were on the threshing floor what happened? is understanding this passage necessary for salvation. Is it not more important to understand why Christ died on the cross ?
Actually, that passage is very important to our salvation, since without Ruth and Boaz, David could never have been born, and without David, Jesus would not have had any ancestry, either, and could not have come to us as a human being to save us from our sins.

Now, it’s not a “deep” passage with a lot of philosophical overtones, unlike, say, the first chapter of the Gospel of John - but the event that took place there is important to our salvation - if it had not occurred, then the chain of events that led to the birth of Christ would not have occurred - which is why it is contained in the Scriptures.

If Ruth and Boaz had not encountered one another on the threshing-floor, Jesse would never have been conceived and born, his youngest son David would never have been sent to his older brothers when they fought the Philistines, he never would have said, “Who is this Philistine, who dares defy the armies of the living God?” - Goliath would have defeated Israel, and that would have been the end of the story, right there - no Israel, no Jesus, no Cross, and no redemption.
 
What? It all has relevance.

Let me illustrate with a little story.
That was an interesting (:whacky:) story. And I appreciate the time it took to type it, but you really needn’t.

My question was not about relevance, XL.

Again, my question is: how do you know what verses in Scripture are essential and what are secondary? Scripture does not tell us, does it?

Those of us who submit to an authority that’s extra-biblical, that is, the CC, can claim to know clearly what are essentials.

However, those who claim that the Bible is their authority are at a loss!
 
That was an interesting (:whacky:) story. And I appreciate the time it took to type it, but you really needn’t.

My question was not about relevance, XL.

Again, my question is: how do you know what verses in Scripture are essential and what are secondary? Scripture does not tell us, does it?

Those of us who submit to an authority that’s extra-biblical, that is, the CC, can claim to know clearly what are essentials.

However, those who claim that the Bible is their authority are at a loss!
Well, maybe I mistagged the post, but there was some relevance discussion going on… I think :manvspc:

whew… here it is
Do you not believe that every word of the Bible comes from God, and is of equal importance? Or are you of the opinion that some words in the Bible are “more relevant” to salvation than others, and that you have to believe those few verses, but the rest are not required for belief? 🤷
:extrahappy:
 
:extrahappy::extrahappy:

The Tradition of the canon of Scripture cannot be supported by Scripture though, MRL. So do you still accept that the Gospel of Mark is inspired but the Gospel of Thomas is not? For that was determined by Tradition, but cannot be supported by the Scriptures.
]

There was a gospel of Thomas?
 
Well, maybe I mistagged the post, but there was some relevance discussion going on… I think :manvspc:

whew… here it is

:extrahappy:
Believing that some are more relevant than others (even if they are, although to my mind, how would they get into the Bible if they were non-essential?) doesn’t give you an infallible list of which verses are relevant, and which ones are not. It’s still a man-made list, right? 🤷
 
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So then these verses below are what you consider essential beliefs, essential things that are necessary for our salvation?

We are saved…

By believing in Christ (Jn 3:16; Acts 16:31)

By repentance (Acts 2:38; 2 Pet 3:9)

By baptism (Jn 3:5; 1 Pet 3:21; Titus 3:5)

By the work of the Spirit (Jn 3:5; 2 Cor 3:6)

By declaring with our mouths (Lk 12:8; Rom 10:9)

By coming to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4; Heb 10:26)

By works (Rom 2:6-7; James 2:24)

By grace (Acts 15:11; Eph 2:8)

By his blood (Rom 5:9; Heb 9:22)

By his righteousness (Rom 5:17; 2 Pet 1:1)

By his Cross (Eph 2:16; Col 2:14)

By eating his flesh (John 6)
]

I don’t believe that we are saved by works; but I believe that He saved us to do works that He had planned for US!
 
]

There was a gospel of Thomas?
There were dozens of Gospels. Only four of them turned out to be authentic, though.

Keep in mind, Jesus was famous, in His time. Hundreds of books were written about Him, and attributed to the Apostles and to members of the early Christian church. Some were authentic, but most of them were not. The job of the Councils, in the late 4th century, was to discern the authentic books from those that were not, and also to discern, of the authentic books, which ones were suitable to be read out at Mass, and which were more suited to scholarship.
 
There were dozens of Gospels. Only four of them turned out to be authentic, though.

Keep in mind, Jesus was famous, in His time. Hundreds of books were written about Him, and attributed to the Apostles and to members of the early Christian church. Some were authentic, but most of them were not. The job of the Councils, in the late 4th century, was to discern the authentic books from those that were not, and also to discern, of the authentic books, which ones were suitable to be read out at Mass, and which were more suited to scholarship.
And most importantly, the standard that the bishops of those councils judged the authenticity of the books against was the Tradition of the Catholic Church. If you do not believe in the authenticity of the Catholic faith, there is no reason to believe the authenticity of the Bible, period.
 
And most importantly, the standard that the bishops of those councils judged the authenticity of the books against was the Tradition of the Catholic Church. If you do not believe in the authenticity of the Catholic faith, there is no reason to believe the authenticity of the Bible, period.
Right, exactly. They were living in the 390’s AD - it’s not like they could just walk up to St. Thomas and ask, “Hey, did you actually write this, or is it a forgery?” They knew it was a forgery because it depicts things happening that don’t fit with what we know from the Holy Tradition.
 
Believing that some are more relevant than others (even if they are, although to my mind, how would they get into the Bible if they were non-essential?) doesn’t give you an infallible list of which verses are relevant, and which ones are not. It’s still a man-made list, right? 🤷
Well I guess that depends on what you are trying to prove. Satan tried to prove angels would catch Jesus if he threw himself from the temple, using Psalm 91.
 
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