Alright sweet. I'll take a crack at your three examples, they're good btw, I don't think I can blow you away with any concrete evidence to change your mind, we both take different things from the bible but I'll try to describe where the LDS church is coming from. To answer your question, in sunday school we study the Old Testament for a year, then the New Testament the next year, then the book of mormon for a year, and then the Doctrine and Covenants for a year, then the cycle repeats. As a general "focus" we study the new testament/gospels more than the OT. We study Isaiah quite a bit as it is particularly important to LDS theology and is quoted in the book of mormon.
"But you teach them to be separate entities. While the term "trilogy" is never mentioned in the new or old testament, they are all one in the same which I could argue is incredibly apparent in the way the Bible strongly teaches in ONE God - one ruler; not three gods - each serving a different integral role. Jesus made this very clear in his ministry and documented in the gospels."
For most mormons, we believe that God and Jesus Christ are two separate beings because Joseph Smith claimed they were and mormons obviously accept him as a prophet. Without getting Joseph Smith in the mix there are quite a few early christian scholars who refute the concept of the trinity.
"There is, and that there is said to be, another God and Lord subject to the Maker of all things who is also called an Angel, because He announces to men whatsoever the Maker of all things, above whom there is no other God, wishes to announce to them.... I shall endeavour to persuade you, that He who is said to have appeared to Abraham, and to Jacob, and to Moses, and who is called God, is distinct from Him who made all things, I mean numerically, not in will. (Dialogue with Trypho, 56). (I can provide more if need be)
"The Bible is very clear in Genesis that because of Adam and Eve's sin, we are now tainted - eternally damned from the moment we are birthed. Humans are born with a sinful nature and the only real repentance is through Jesus Christ who took our place on that cross by means of substitutionary atonement."
I provide a short excerpt from Terryl Givens' "The God Who Weeps": (Regarding original sin) "Surely this is a perverse vision and a slander upon God. It suggests his plan was derailed before it got off the ground, that he is a brilliant repairman but a poor designer. God's creation of the human race begins in catastrophe and is in need of salvaging. That we should be condemned, punished, accounted guilty, for crimes of our ancestors, is a concept repugnant to every conception of human justice. What could be more debilitating than to begin life with a premise of debasement rather than blessedness, to see our birth as an inherited perdition rather than the gift of opportunity, to imagine our origins as steeped in sin rather than trailing clouds of glory?"
Harriet Beecher Stowe's brother, Edward Beecher, wrote that "if there is in fact a malignant spirit, of great and all-pervading power, intent on making a fixed and steady opposition to the progress of the cause of God," he would "pervert and disgrace" the story of our true origins in a premortal world, and our true relation to God."
"Man is not saved by works, but by faith in Jesus Christ - which is clearly documented in the New Testament and fulfilled in prophecy over and over and over again. If he were to be saved through any other means, Jesus' death on that cross would mean nothing."
The argument that we believe in works based salvation is really a misconception and it's one that we as a church own because the misconception stems from us not thoroughly understanding our doctrine. Mormons sometimes say "we are saved, after all we can do". Mormons believe in grace, real grace, the same grace you believe in, the difference between us and perfection, he makes it all up, regardless of our own efforts. The emphasis we place on doing our best and becoming better is because we believe in eternal progression and believe that we should always be improving ourselves so that we are comfortable in God's presence. "Christ doesn't just make up the difference. He makes all the difference."
