before i read the replies i had an individualistic mindset concerning the confessions so thank you for clarifying. i guess my question would be why isn't the 2HC widely held to or even rarely mentioned in Reformed churches in the United States?
KMK will fix the signature, thanks.
Rich hinted at this in his response to you earlier, but perhaps it could be more clear. Confessions aren't documents that are generally adopted by individual churches by some sort of vote of the consistory or what have you as though the congregation is declaring "I like chocolate" as opposed to "I like vanilla". Churches who have that kind of ecclesiastical structure simply aren't "individuals" in that sense. They are, properly anyway in churches holding to a presbyterial form of government (as opposed to baptistic-congregationally governed churches), adopted by the federation as a whole... and generally those adoptions predate the formation of the denomination.
The lack of advertisement/embracing of the 2nd Helvetic, isn't at all surprising, given this (and given the fact that it is an official standard of a very small part of the church in the world). All the denominations that derive from the Dutch or German Reformed branches of the European Reformed churches hold to the TFU as their confessional standard. The 2nd Helvetic, as the name implies, is a Swiss document, and there is little, if any, denominational activity that stems truly from the Swiss Reformed tradition in the US - so to me at least it's not very surprising that there aren't Reformed churches who subscribe to the 2nd Helvetic. The Hungarian Reformed Churches, as was noted, do hold to the 2nd Helvetic as one of their confessional standards together with the Heidelberg Catechism - but they have a very small presence in the US.
The Reformed churches in the US generally do derive from either Holland or Germany - and because of their ecclesiology, individual congregations will not up and adopt some additional standard - though some will teach using the 2nd Helvetic, which is a beautiful and appropriate document to use - but it is subservient to both Scripture and the official standards of the denomination to which the congregation belongs. This is, though, fairly rare... and I would rather see - quite frankly - reformed churches promiscuously teaching from and openly embracing their official standards first .... and then, if that is in order, make more of things like the 2nd Helvetic.
