It has, however, unquestionably had a place in the canon of the New Testament since the Council of Laodicea in 372 A.D., and there is certainly no such decisive evidence against it as to warrant our omitting it from the New Testament. It would appear that the writer, whoever he was, had seen the Letter from Jude, and bore it in mind in this his plea for such character and conduct on the part of believers as were worthy of their faith and would prepare them for the Coming of the Lord. The whole Letter constitutes an earnest appeal for practical holiness. John's First Letter That this Letter was the actual work of the Apostle John, the son of Zabdi, has been abundantly testified from the very earliest times. Some modern critics have doubted it, on the ground of internal evidence. But a calm survey of the whole case does not bear out their objections. Dr. Salmon well says that no explanation of the origin of the Epistle fits the facts so well as the one which has always prevailed. It seems to have been addressed to the Church at large, with perhaps special reference to the Churches in Roman Asia. The connexion between this Letter and the fourth Gospel is "intimate and organic. The Gospel is objective and the Epistle subjective. The Gospel suggests principles of conduct which the Epistle lays down explicitly. The Epistle implies facts which the Gospel states as historically true." This Letter appears to have been written from Ephesus, and critics have usually assigned 95 A. D., or some other year equally late in the Apostolic age, as the probable date of its composition. On the other hand the internal evidence points to a date immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. See 2:8 (last clause); 2:18; 4:3; and note the expectation of a speedy Coming of Christ (2:28; 3:2)--an expectation which seems almost to have ceased in the early Church after that date. John's Second Letter Although we are unable to fix the exact date of this Letter or the place at which it was written, there is sufficient evidence, both external and internal, to warrant our acceptance of it as a genuine work of the Apostle John. Some have thought that the "lady" addressed stands for an unknown Church, but upon careful consideration it appears more reasonable and natural to regard the Letter as having been a private one. It is impossible to discover the name of the individual to whom it was sent, but both this and the following Letter may be taken as "precious specimens of the private correspondence of the beloved Apostle." John's Third Letter