Can someone please help me with info on how the terms "esential" and "non-essential" came into use from a historical standpoint with respect to christian doctrine?
I ask because reading the posts here, I get the impression that everything is essential.
For instance if the non-ordination of women to church office is essential to ecclesiology, then one might also argue that amillenialism is essential to eschatology with the end result that everything becomes essential
Yet we know that all terminology has a historical meaning attached to it. So for example, I cannot call myself a Presbyterian just because I believe in eldership rule as opposed to congregational rule because the historical meaning of Presbyterianism excludes Baptists who are without presbytery or synod.
So help me, what is the historical understanding of the terms "essential" and "non-essential?"

A Debtor to Sovereign Grace