Colin Wadey asks "If the problem of evil is with man, why does your God not change him?" (Letters, January 4). The wonderful thing is, he does.

Jesus said it was possible for a man or woman to be born again (John 3:1-21) and St Paul wrote: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, trusting in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

A Christian is not someone who has an academic knowledge of the Bible and theology or who tries to follow the Christian ethic but someone who has experienced a life-changing experience through faith in Christ.

Mark 16:18 says: "They will pick up snakes with their hands and when they drink deadly poison, it will not harm them at all, they will place their hands on sick people and they will get well."

These signs Jesus promised would accompany those who believe (Mark 16:17) were not intended as tests of faith or the existence of God but as signs that would authenticate the truth of the Christian faith.

We are forbidden to put God to the test by frivolous means, with which many try to prove his existence, or not.

Yet, throughout history, Christians have been protected from deadly snakes - such as St Paul, who, on the island of Malta, was bitten by a viper yet survived without harm, or the Christian missionaries who, out of respect for the feelings of others, have eaten meats that were definitely poisonous or drank equally deadly potions.

I, too, have laid hands on the sick and, by the grace of God, they have been made well.

-Reverend John Webster, Gleton Avenue, Hove