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OK, I’ll go along with this. What’s optional then? The virgin birth? The divinity of Christ? The Trinity? The miracles? The crucifixion? The Resurrection?, etc, etc,... that’s all beyond that isolated verse. What are we to believe about Christ, everything except that he established a Church and not a library?

You were the one who was intimating that more was necessary for salvation other than belief in Christ. Here’s you statement.

>>people outside of the Church seem to believe almost everything necessary, but not all of it.<<

“almost everything necessary, but not all of it”? I pointed out that Paul distinctly and succinctly answered “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved”. Now, what more is needed that prompted your “but not all of it” comment?

What are we to believe about Christ, everything except that he established a Church and not a library?

That's goofy...Of course God established a library with the instructions in it on how to run his church...And that's church, not Church...

If a bible never existed, how many followers do you think would become Catholic???

OK, I’ll go along with this. What’s optional then? The virgin birth? The divinity of Christ? The Trinity? The miracles? The crucifixion? The Resurrection?, etc, etc,... that’s all beyond that isolated verse. What are we to believe about Christ, everything except that he established a Church and not a library?

IMHO, you should study the Bible itself.

I mean that in the most helpful way possible.

I'm a programmer, I've dealt in common sense for decades for a living. It's just common sense to really "get" (understand) the "manual" yourself. As opposed to taking what teachers or study guides say - without verifying what they say about the "manual" is actually what the "manual" says.

The best "study guides" (which form the official stance on doctrinal basics) Presbyterians came up with are the http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/, and the http://www.reformed.org/documents/wsc/index.html and the http://www.reformed.org/documents/wlc_w_proofs/index.html.

In my humble opinion, I would ask myself if I would consider myself accepting the position of being the "leader" of all Christians on earth. The Church, after all... is Christ's. I'm sure we can all agree on that. It's the "Bride of Christ". Would you want to claim to be head of the "Bride of Christ" ?

Even in Churches that are corrupted, we know from Scripture that there is always the concept of a remnant of true believers.

That being said, the Bible in various verses tells us that we are to seek out a Bible-believing Church and become part of that community. The Bible tells us to reject false preachers. The Bible tells us to rely on the Bible as our rule and guide in faith and practice.

The large Presbyterian denominations have abandoned their own doctrinal standard, the Westminster Confession of Faith.