“The Catholic Church, once it decided in the 3rd Century what books would be in the Bible”
First of all, the Roman church didn’t even exist as it does today in the 3rd century.
“Sometimes, then, the Fathers speak and write in a way that would eventually be seen as unorthodox. But this is not the only difficulty with respect to the criterion of orthodoxy. The other great one is that we look in vain in many of the Fathers for references to things that many Christians might believe in today. We do not find, for instance, some teachings on Mary or the papacy that were developed in medieval and modern times.’ — Boniface Ramsey, Beginning to Read the Fathers (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1986), p. 6.
Taken from:
http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/BeggarAll-Exchange-DM.html
Second of all, there was no church-wide decision that determined the canon in the 3rd century, unless you are trying to refer to Jerome (but this would be later) who put those books you mention out of the canon. The only ecumenical council, Trullo, at the time actually endorsed quite a few contradictory lists, including lists with even more books than the Catholic church today recognizes. Other councils were entirely regional, and therefore not binding, and thus, the view of Jerome prevailed in the west for quite a long time.
“The Catholic Church, once it decided in the 3rd Century what books would be in the Bible”
Pardon me. 4th Century. Thanks for keeping me on my toes.
There is hope for you afterall.
The New Testament was not decided upon until the late 4th century, at the Council of Rome, in the year 382. This collection of writings from the first century Christians was determined by this Council to be divinely inspired by God, the real author. Many other writings were considered, but were thrown out by the Catholic Church as not being the authentic Word of God. The interesting fact here is that this means for almost 400 years the Christians of those days had no Bible to refer to. Therefore, the Church that Jesus Himself had set up had to primarily transmit His Word orally (some rare individual manuscripts did exist, but were mainly limited to Churches, and not considered divinely inspired as sacred scripture until 382 AD), which is the beginning of the doctrine of Tradition.