I believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and, when interpreted intelligently and with compassion, it provides the best written means of learning more about God.

What I fail to see, though, is how anyone (an individual, a denomination or indeed a religion) can actually claim that they – and they alone – have all the Truth. Especially when Truth is actually a Person: Jesus Christ. (“I am the way and the truth and the life” – John 14:6). God is so much bigger than our petty little boundaries and definitions, and we insult His grace by being so parochial and narrow-minded. And I include myself in that ‘we’.

But I know full well that I do not have the full story, and the things of God are in places so unfathomable that anyone would be mad to claim that they ‘know’ all the Truth. Sure, the Truth will set you free, but He sets us free by degrees – as we are able to handle each step – and not all in one go.

I now believe different things, after 35 years as a Christian, than I did when I first believed. Does this mean I was wrong all those years ago? In part, yes. But in other things, no. That’s what learning is all about. No doubt in ten years’ time, I will not agree with, or believe in, some of the things that I now believe are true and for which I consider my understanding to be complete.

That’s what’s called becoming mature, and maturity is one of the things we are encouraged to proceed towards as Christians. “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature” (1 Cor 14:20)

Maturing is, by its nature, change. Faith and belief are a journey, and you never really arrive at the end of that journey – not in this lifetime, anyway.