Maryz: I think a better case could be made that the Calvinist God is a throwback to a tribal god (as I suppose you could say the Muslim God is).
Kosta: How does either differ from the OT God?
I rather like that Kosta, thank you. The Calvinist God is unlike the Latin God because the Calvinist God is like the God of the OT. I love it! :)
That is my understanding as well...
I've let this observation sit for a while, hoping someone better equipped to address the matter might happen upon it, and correct such a peculiar misperception.
The Old Testament God is the New Testament God. God is eternal. He is the Great I AM. Anyone who believes it was God who changed from Old to New is deluded. If the "Latin" God is not the Old Testament God, then there is a problem with the "Latin" belief, not the Calvinist.
God is not all love and forgiveness and the New Testament does not claim that that is His sole nature. Vengeance and judgment are His and always have been.
Our Calvinist brothers and sisters are more severe in their beliefs, that much is clear to anyone who has participated here for any length of time. Their beliefs regarding predestination seem to me to be rather too harsh and mechanical, instead of accepting the fact that we do have free will to choose Him or not. That our decisions have always been known does not change that.
But, predestination does acknowledge the foreknowledge and that the ultimate fate for each of us sitting here today is known and always has been. So, I'm not going to nitpick and squabble over it. Their doctrine is theirs, and whether or not I dispute it does not affect their salvation or mine, it's a minor matter in the greater scheme of things.
Putting created beings, dead or alive, in a position of authority or even as intercessor between us and God is not a minor doctrinal matter, and so we see the apparently endless debate. Calvinists have been the most determined to point out the error in this, but it's an error that is recognized by most deemed "Protestant." Could the language be less provocative? It certainly could. But, then again, severity is a hallmark of Calvinism, in my perception at least, and so it's to be expected to some extent.