Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter 5
Of The Adoration, Worship and Invocation of God Through The Only Mediator Jesus Christ
GOD ALONE IS TO BE ADORED AND WORSHIPPED
We teach that the true God alone is to be adored and worshipped. This honor we impart to none other, according to the commandment of the Lord, "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve" (Math. 4:10). Indeed, all the prophets severely inveighed against the people of Israel whenever they adored and worshipped strange gods, and not the only true God. But we teach that God is to be adored and worshipped as he himself has taught us to worship, namely, "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23 f.), not with any superstition, but with sincerity, according to his Word; lest at anytime he should say to us: "Who has required these things from your hands?" (Isa. 1:12; Jer. 6:20). For Paul also says: "God is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything," etc. (Acts 17:25).
Scripture references for paragraph 1
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
John 4:23-5423But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.
24God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”
26Jesus answered, “I who speak to you am He.”
27Just then His disciples returned and were surprised that He was speaking with a woman. But no one asked Him, “What do You want from her?” or “Why are You talking with her?”
28Then the woman left her water jar, went back into the town, and said to the people,
29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”
30So they left the town and made their way toward Jesus.
31Meanwhile the disciples urged Him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32But He told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33So the disciples asked one another, “Could someone have brought Him food?”
34Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.
35Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe for harvest.
36Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.
37For in this case the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.
38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the hard work, and now you have taken up their labor.”
39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”
40So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days.
41And many more believed because of His message.
42They said to the woman, “We now believe not only because of your words; we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man truly is the Savior of the world.”
43After two days, Jesus left for Galilee.
44Now He Himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.
45Yet when He arrived, the Galileans welcomed Him. They had seen all the great things He had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they had gone there as well.
46So once again He came to Cana in Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. And there was a royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum.
47When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Him to come down and heal his son, who was about to die.
48Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.”
49“Sir,” the official said, “come down before my child dies.”
50“Go,” said Jesus. “Your son will live.” The man took Jesus at His word and departed.
51And while he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was alive.
52So he inquired as to the hour when his son had recovered, and they told him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.”
53Then the father realized that this was the very hour in which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” And he and all his household believed.
54This was now the second sign that Jesus performed after coming from Judea into Galilee.
Isaiah 1:1212When you come to appear before Me, who has required this of you— this trampling of My courts?
Jeremiah 6:2020What use to Me is frankincense from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please Me.”
Acts 17:2525Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
GOD ALONE IS TO BE INVOKED THROUGH THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST ALONE
In all crises and trials of our life we call upon him alone, and that by the mediation of our only mediator and intercessor, Jesus Christ. For we have been explicitly commanded: "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me" (Ps. 1:15). Moreover, we have a most generous promise from the Lord Who said: "If you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you" (John 16:23), and: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest: (Matt 11:28). And since it is written: "How are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed?" (Rom. 10:14), and since we do believe in God alone, we assuredly call upon him alone, and we do so through Christ. For as the apostle says, "There is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus? (I Tim. 2:5), and, "If any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," etc. (I John 2:1).
Scripture references for paragraph 2
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
John 16:2323In that day you will no longer ask Me anything. Truly, truly, I tell you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
Matthew 11:2828Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Romans 10:1414How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?
1 Timothy 2:55For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
1 John 2:11My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
THE SAINTS ARE NOT TO BE ADORED, WORSHIPPED OR INVOKED
For this reason we do not adore, worship, or pray to the saints in heaven, or to other gods, and we do not acknowledge them as our intercessors or mediators before the Father in heaven. For God and Christ the Mediator are sufficient for us; neither do we give to others the honor that is due to God alone and to his Son, because he has expressly said: "My glory I give to no other: (Isa. 42:8), and because Peter has said: "There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved," except the name of Christ (Acts 4:12). In him, those who give their assent by faith do not seek anything outside Christ.
Scripture references for paragraph 3
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
Isaiah 42:88I am the LORD; that is My name! I will not yield My glory to another or My praise to idols.
Acts 4:1212Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
THE DUE HONOR TO BE RENDERED TO THE SAINTS
At the same time we do not despise the saints or think basely of them. For we acknowledge them to be living members of Christ and friends of God who have gloriously overcome the flesh and the world. Hence we love them as brothers, and also honor them; yet not with any kind of worship but by an honorable opinion of them and just praises of them. We also imitate them. For with ardent longings and supplications we earnestly desire to be imitators of their faith and virtues, to share eternal salvation with them, to dwell eternally with them in the presence of God, and to rejoice with them in Christ. And in this respect we approve of the opinion of St. Augustine in De Vera Religione: "Let not our religion be the cult of men who have died. For if they have lived holy lives, they are not to be thought of as seeking such honors; on the contrary, they want us to worship him by whose illumination they rejoice that we are fellow-servants of his merits. They are therefore to be honored by the way of imitation, but not to be adored in a religious manner," etc.
RELICS OF THE SAINTS
Much less do we believe that the relics of the saints are to be adored and reverenced. Those ancient saints seemed to have sufficiently honored their dead when they decently committed their remains to the earth after the spirit had ascended on high. And they thought that the most noble relics of their ancestors were their virtues, their doctrine, and their faith. Moreover, as they commend these "relics" when praising the dead, so they strive to copy them during their life on earth.
SWEARING BY GOD'S NAME ALONE
These ancient men did not swear except by the name of the only God, Yahweh, as prescribed by the divine law. Therefore, as it is forbidden to swear by the names of strange gods (Ex. 23:;13; Deut. 10:20), so we do not perform oaths to the saints that are demanded of us. We therefore reject in all these matters a doctrine that ascribes much too much to the saints in heaven.
Scripture references for paragraph 6
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
Exodus 23:1-331“You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness.
2You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.
3And do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.
4If you encounter your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him.
5If you see the donkey of one who hates you fallen under its load, do not leave it there; you must help him with it.
6You shall not deny justice to the poor in their lawsuits.
7Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent or the just, for I will not acquit the guilty.
8Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous.
9Do not oppress a foreign resident, since you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
10For six years you are to sow your land and gather its produce,
11but in the seventh year you must let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your people may eat from the field and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and olive grove.
12For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the son of your maidservant may be refreshed, as well as the foreign resident.
13Pay close attention to everything I have said to you. You must not invoke the names of other gods; they must not be heard on your lips.
14Three times a year you are to celebrate a feast to Me.
15You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread as I commanded you: At the appointed time in the month of Abib you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days, because that was the month you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before Me empty-handed.
16You are also to keep the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the produce from what you sow in the field. And keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.
17Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD.
18You must not offer the blood of My sacrifices with anything leavened, nor may the fat of My feast remain until morning.
19Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
20Behold, I am sending an angel before you to protect you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.
21Pay attention to him and listen to his voice; do not defy him, for he will not forgive rebellion, since My Name is in him.
22But if you will listen carefully to his voice and do everything I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.
23For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will annihilate them.
24You must not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices. Instead, you are to demolish them and smash their sacred stones to pieces.
25So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take away sickness from among you.
26No woman in your land will miscarry or be barren; I will fulfill the number of your days.
27I will send My terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn and run.
28I will send the hornet before you to drive the Hivites and Canaanites and Hittites out of your way.
29I will not drive them out before you in a single year; otherwise the land would become desolate and wild animals would multiply against you.
30Little by little I will drive them out ahead of you, until you become fruitful and possess the land.
31And I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.
32You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.
33They must not remain in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
Exodus 13:1-221Then the LORD said to Moses,
2“Consecrate to Me every firstborn male. The firstborn from every womb among the Israelites belongs to Me, both of man and beast.”
3So Moses told the people, “Remember this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; for the LORD brought you out of it by the strength of His hand. And nothing leavened shall be eaten.
4Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving.
5And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites—the land He swore to your fathers that He would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you shall keep this service in this month.
6For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD.
7Unleavened bread shall be eaten during those seven days. Nothing leavened may be found among you, nor shall leaven be found anywhere within your borders.
8And on that day you are to explain to your son, ‘This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’
9It shall be a sign for you on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the Law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For with a mighty hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt.
10Therefore you shall keep this statute at the appointed time year after year.
11And after the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as He swore to you and your fathers,
12you are to present to the LORD the firstborn male of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD.
13You must redeem every firstborn donkey with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, you are to break its neck. And every firstborn of your sons you must redeem.
14In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
15And when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both of man and beast. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the firstborn male of every womb, but I redeem all the firstborn of my sons.’
16So it shall serve as a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead, for with a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt.”
17When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the road through the land of the Philistines, though it was shorter. For God said, “If the people face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”
18So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the Israelites left the land of Egypt arrayed for battle.
19Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear a solemn oath when he said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones with you from this place.”
20They set out from Succoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness.
21And the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud to guide their way by day, and in a pillar of fire to give them light by night, so that they could travel by day or night.
22Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place before the people.
Deuteronomy 10:2020You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.
Source and edition
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