Regarding Extra Biblical Sources Like The Church Fathers
II Tim 3:16-17 reads “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 perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” So the scriptures make us complete - “thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”This clearly would mean non inspired writing should carry no weight when determining religious truth/doctrine. But the Catholics have weighted Church Tradition and Church Leadership up to the same level as scripture. And now many denominationalists and even some Christians are weighting the writings of the early Church Fathers almost the same as scripture. But if we truly believe Isaiah 55:8-9 ("For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."), then we will understand that what the Church Fathers said is not even a tinsy smidgen of the standard we go by in determining God's will.What the uninspired "very early Christians believed" carries no weight because the difference between being inspired or not inspired is the difference in God saying something and man saying something. The difference between God saying something in religion and man saying something in religion, is far greater than the difference between Einstein saying something on the theory of relativity and an ant saying something on the theory of relativity. What the ant says should carry absolutely no weight.If letting something extra Biblical (like the Church Fathers) carry weight leads us to the same conclusion we would have concluded from the Bible alone, then the extra material is absolutely unnecessary / superfluous. If on the other hand, that extra Biblical material leads us to a different conclusion than what we would have concluded from the Bible alone, then that extra Biblical material has led us astray. Therein lies the grave danger. We are to only contend for the "faith" (Jude 3), not for anything we learn outside actual scripture.Passages like II Tim 3:16-17 teach the scriptures are our sole authority in religion. Period.