We will have to agree to disagree as our bodies came from Adam, our soul came from Adam and our spirit came from Adam and DNA simply gives each its own personality traits.
No, that's not why we'll have to agree to disagree -- but if you'd like to set that aside, I'm willing as well. I've never thought it was significant.
The major difference between us that we were discussing there was a definition of death. I said, in brief, that I define death as the end of life; let me expand that to something I think we can better disagree on without having to argue endlessly on when the spirit's life ended (since we disagree on that).
I posted a definition of 'dead' from my phone's study Bible, which seems to be an old version of Oxford concise (and is also at
this link). Its point is to give examples of how the word is routinely used in English. MY point is that conditionalists read the word "death" and "dead" in the English translations of the Bible in the same way that the dictionary tells us it's read in normal English -- with room for some metaphorical uses the dictionary also lists, such as "insensitive".
Here's
the definition of 'death' from the same source (Oxford), perhaps more useful:
death, n.
1 the final cessation of vital functions in an organism; the ending of life.
2 the event that terminates life.
3 a the fact or process of being killed or killing (stone to death; fight to the death). b the fact or state of being dead (eyes closed in death; their deaths caused rioting).
4 a the destruction or permanent cessation of something (was the death of our hopes). b colloq. something terrible or appalling.
5 (usu. Death) a personification of death, esp. as a destructive power, usu. represented by a skeleton.
6 a lack of religious faith or spiritual life.
Greek resources give the same meanings, minus the uniquely English idea of "dead certain", which is used to mean "absolutely certain" (see etymologies for an explanation of this divergence) -- but English speakers have no more trouble keeping the two separate than Greek speakers have trouble keeping the two meanings of /apollumi/ (English: destroy, lose) separate. For completeness, I'll also include
their definition of "life" (flip down to the Oxford entry for consistency).
life, n. (pl. lives)
1 the condition which distinguishes active animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.
2 a living things and their activity (insect life; is there life on Mars?). b human presence or activity (no sign of life).
3 a the period during which life lasts, or the period from birth to the present time or from the present time to death (have done it all my life; will regret it all my life; life membership). b the duration of a thing's existence or of its ability to function; validity, efficacy, etc. (the battery has a life of two years).
4 a a person's state of existence as a living individual (sacrificed their lives; took many lives). b a living person (many lives were lost).
5 a an individual's occupation, actions, or fortunes; the manner of one's existence (that would make life easy; start a new life). b a particular aspect of this (love-life; private life).
6 the active part of existence; the business and pleasures of the world (travel is the best way to see life).
7 man's earthly or supposed future existence.
8 a energy, liveliness, animation (full of life; put some life into it!). b an animating influence (was the life of the party).
Some of these meanings apply only to some of the Greek words -- for example, the Greek /
bios/ matches English 'life' in sense 5 (the means of living, wealth, equipment, as in the prodigal's father dividing his /
bios/ among his sons), while /
zoe/ matches more. Greek /
psuche/ can take the sense 4 (whoever saves his life will lose it, etc.) in addition to meaning "soul". Nonetheless, the experts who translate our Bibles, both the godly ones and the ones who merely make it their profession, agree that the English and Greek senses line up, and there is no dissension that the Greek and Hebrew words /thanos/ or /muth/ should ever be translated "separation".
You, on the other hand, ask that we ignore how those words are used in all the languages, and instead substitute something that we know happens at the time of physical death ONLY, which is the separation of body from soul. In other words, you imagine that physical death's act of separation redefines ALL kinds of death, so that death itself means primarily something like the separation that happens at physical death, and NOT the losing of animation which the word connotes in all of the languages we use to study the Bible.
Now, here's the challenge I think you and the OP need to meet. You believe that the Bible defines "death" as separation, so regardless of what the dictionary says, the Bible overwhelms it. I say that's fair, and I want you to SHOW ME where the Bible redefines death as separation. Remember, it's not enough to show that separation happens at physical death; many other things happen at physical death which don't redefine death. The BEST evidence you can show is "you have heard it said that death means loss of animation; but I say to you that death means separation." Of course, I know this doesn't exist and I don't prejudge your case for it; but surely you have some reason to teach people that the Bible's definition of death is different from any dictionary ever.
