[Vernon]

Amazing what contortions one will go through in a effort to support what simply is not there.

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

Amazing what contortions one will go through in a effort to support what simply is not there.

Verse 13 is there.

And it established Spiritual Re-birth as being PAST TENSE at the point of Present-Tense "Belief" in Verse 12.

Thus Demonstrating that Spiritual Regeneration precedes Belief, and that Man's Will (exactly as John 1:13 declares) has no part whatsoever in a man's Spiritual Regeneration.

Verse 13 is there -- and it eliminates Man's Will from the Equation of Spiritual Regeneration. Period.