In an attempt to defend their Church against the scriptures, the Catholic Church claims theirs is the one and only body with the authority and ability to correctly interpret the scriptures, and this is proven by the fact theirs is the Church that produced the New Testament canon. According to the argument, the Councils of Hippo (393 A.D.) and Carthage (397 A.D.) were necessary for the Church to know which books belong in the New Testament, and which don't.
There are a number of major flaws with this argument (many of which I have addressed here), but in this article, I want to highlight the more obvious one. Namely, the Apostles themselves recognised at least some of the New Testament as scripture on equal footing with the Old Testament, as is shown in the scriptures themselves.
It is possible to show from the scriptures themselves that they were accepted organically as they were written, and that the Apostles themselves placed their "seal of approval" on it. Furthermore, because this is revealed in scripture, this "seal of approval" is not their own. Rather, God Himself revealed that yes, these works are scripture, and therefore no Church will ever have the authority to add to, or remove from them.
First, let us consider 1 Timothy 5:18. In this verse, Paul appeals to scripture to prove his point. The first scripture he appeals to is Deuteronomy 25:4. No Catholic will deny that Deuteronomy was scripture long before Carthage. After all, Christ Himself appeals to it to prove His own authority (which is important: If anyone is above the scriptures, it's Jesus, yet He chose instead to appeal to them). But you will search in vain for "the worker is worthy of his wages" in Deuteronomy. This comes from Luke 10:7, proving that Paul 1. Was aware of Luke's Gospel, 2. Believed it was scripture and 3. Believed it was equal to Deuteronomy. Did Paul wait for Carthage?
In 2 Peter 3:16, Peter talks about the letters "our beloved brother Paul" (v15) wrote, "according to the wisdom given to him". These epistles, according to Peter, contain some things that are hard to understand. The untaught and unstable twist them, to their own destruction, as they do with the rest of the scriptures. Note that Peter doesn't say "as they do with the scriptures", making a distinction. Rather, he says "as they do with the rest of the scriptures". "The rest" implies that they are to be taken together. These epistles, by Peter's own reckoning, are scriptures. By that same token, to twist them is self destructive.
So, Peter recognised Paul's epistles as scripture, and Paul recognised Luke's Gospel, but take a look at what Paul said in a subsequent letter to Timothy: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Let's examine that again: "All Scripture (including Paul's Epistles and Luke's Gospel) is given by inspiration of God (i.e. pure, infallible and very much not subject to the opinions of the Catholic Church), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, (i.e. lacking nothing) thoroughly equipped for every (i.e. no exceptions) good work."
Well that doesn't sound like Catholicism, does it? Aside from showing that the scriptures, some of which are internally recognised, are inspired (literally "breathed out") by God, and therefore were canonical before the ink dried, Paul continues to tell us that they give a man of God everything he needs for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness (not to mention making us wise to salvation, as verse 15 says). But Catholicism says we need a whole lot more than that. We also need the ever-evolving Catholic tradition. Traditions which are not only completely absent from the Bible, but which often flat out contradict it. My brethren, this is not the Church Christ founded. This is a Satanic counterfeit no better than the Pharisees. Christians should avoid the Catholic Church to the best of our abilities.