CHAPTER 1 To All Who Received Him We begin with an explosive text, teaching as it does about a mysterious, invisible birth—a mystic birth. Here is how it reads: He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:11–13) Such a text cannot be properly handled without getting into