A couple of quotes on this Reformed Confession:
“The Second Helvetic Confession is on some accounts to be regarded as the most authoritative symbol of the Reformed Church, as it was more generally received than any other” (Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Volume 3, p.634).
“The Second Helvetic Confession, prepared by Bullinger, A.D. 1564. ‘It was adopted by all the Reformed churches in Switzerland, with the exception of Basle (which was content with its old symbol, the First Helvetic), and by the Reformed churches in Poland, Hungary, Scotland and France,’ [2] and has always been regarded as of the highest authority by all the Reformed churches” (A.A. Hodge, A Short History of Creeds and Confessions).
2. Shedd’s History of Christian Doctrine.
Now some quotes from Chapter one: "Of The Holy Scripture Being The True Word of God":
"INWARD ILLUMINATION DOES NOT ELIMINATE EXTERNAL PREACHING. For he that illuminates inwardly by giving men the Holy Spirit, the same one, by way of commandment, said unto his disciples, 'Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation' (Mark 16:15). And so in Phillippi, Paul preached the word outwardly to Lydia, a seller of purple goods; but the Lord inwardly opened the woman’s heart (Acts 16:14). And the same Paul, after a beautiful development of his thought, in Romans 10:17 at length comes to the conclusion, 'So faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God by the preaching of Christ'” (Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter 1).
The Second Helvetic Confession cites Paul’s conclusion in Romans 10:17 and then proceeds to COMPLETELY VITIATE Paul’s “beautifully developed” argument in the very next paragraph:
“At the same time we recognize that God can illuminate whom and when he will, Even without the external ministry, for that is in his power; but we speak of the usual way of instructing men, delivered unto us from God, both by commandment and examples (Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter 1).
Note Paul’s string of obviously rhetorical questions:
“How then may they call on One into whom they have not believed? And how may they believe One of whom they have not heard? And how may they hear without preaching? And how may they preach if they are not sent? Even as it has been written, How beautiful the feet of those preaching the gospel of peace, of those preaching the gospel of good things. But not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? Then faith is of hearing, and hearing through the Word of God” (Romans 10:14-17).
The obvious answer to Paul’s list of questions is: THEY CANNOT. But the Second Helvetic Confession blatantly contradicts Scripture by saying: THEY CAN (albeit in “unusual circumstances”). Thus, the Second Helvetic Confession COMPLETELY OBLITERATES Paul’s argument by smashing the links in its logically rhetorical chain. The Second Helvetic Confession contorts Paul’s beautifully sound conclusion into a grotesque non sequitur with its implicit caveat that "faith is [USUALLY] of hearing, and hearing [IS USUALLY] through the Word of God.”
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone believing, both to Jew first, and to Greek” (Romans 1:16).
And yet the Second Helvetic Confession wickedly qualifies Paul’s statement with: “The gospel of Christ…is [USUALLY] the power of God to salvation to everyone believing”:
“At the same time we recognize that God can illuminate whom and when he will, Even without the external ministry, for that is in his power; but we speak of the usual way of instructing men, delivered unto us from God, both by commandment and examples (Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter 1).
Since it’s “in [their] power” to deny the gospel as the power of God to salvation to everyone believing, they think it also must be “in [God’s] power” to do likewise. The authors of this confession (mainly (?) from the pernicious pen of Heinrich Bullinger [1]) are deniers of the gospel of Christ as the power of God to salvation to EVERYONE BELIEVING.
[1] Historian Schaff says that "Bullinger was one of the principal authors of the First Helvetic Confession, and the sole author of the Second."
