The second helvetic confession chapter i of the holy scripture being the true word of god canonical scripture we believe and confess the canonical scriptures of the holy prophets and apostles of both testaments to be the true word of god and to have sufficient authority of themselves not of men for god himself spoke to the fathers prophets apostles and still speaks to us through the . Bullinger composed the second helvetic confession in 1562 in latin for his own use as an abiding testimony of the faith in which he had lived and in which he wished to die he showed it to peter martyr who fully consented to it shortly before his death nov12 1562 two years afterwards lie elaborated it more fully during the raging of the pestilence and added it to his will which was to be delivered to the magistrate of zurich after his death which he then expected every day. The second helvetic confession november 2007 the scots confession the heidelberg catechism and the second helvetic confession are all reformation era statements of faith they all followed within a generation of martin luthers posting of the 95 theses on the wittenburg door on october 31 1517