In reply to C Wadey (Letters, December 12) may I say yes, I do believe in the Devil.

According to the Bible, he was an angel who rebelled against God and led other angels with him in rebellion.

The Devil became the leader of the rebel angels, wholly evil, who later became known as demons. The Bible gives various names to the Devil, such as Satan, Adversary and the Destroyer.

In the first three Gospels of the New Testament, we have a record of the personal encounter Jesus had with the Devil when he was tempted in the wilderness.

Christians believe God is greater then Satan and that Jesus Christ broke his power by his death and resurrection.

We also believe Jesus Christ is coming again and will finally overthrow the Devil and his armies and establish a new cosmic order. In this new cosmos, all evil and suffering will be finally abolished.

Unlike R F Osborne (Letters, December 12), I do not believe the doctor who talked of devils and demons and considered exorcism was being flippant or genuinely sarcastic.

I know a number of doctors who believe in the reality of demonic powers. If a thing was true in the 17th Century, it is not necessarily untrue in the 21st Century.

My views may seem credulous and I don't know all the philosophical answers to the problem of evil.

However, I do know the reality of the author of the Bible and my experience of his love and forgiveness in my own life leads me to conclude that what he tells me about the origins of evil are true.

-Reverend John Webster, Gleton Avenue, Hove