It seems to me, just in general, death can't precede life. One has to first be alive before they can be dead in any sense. When is it that you are proposing one is initially spiritually dead? Before they are even born? Before they even have the ability to fully understand the differnce between right and wrong? Take infants, for instance. Some die before they are physically born, such as through miscarriages, abortions, etc. Per your view, were they spiritually dead when they died? Some infants also die as infants after they are born. Same question---Per your view, were they spiritually dead when they died?
It seems like you approach every subject from the perspective of: how can I defend Premil. That is the way it comes across anyway. Those who live outside of the Discussion Forums world seem to have no difficulty grasping this reality. You don't seem to have that ability or liberty, because to acknowledge the same would cause Premil to fall like a deck of cards. Every card depends on the other in Premil. Also, because it enjoys zero corroboration for all its main tenets you cannot concede anything to Amil. I believe this stops you being objective on the subject of eschatology.
Scripture shows that we are born spiritually dead.
The first death that man experienced in the garden after Adam ate of the fruit and consequently sinned was
spiritual death. God said to Adam, in Genesis 2:17,
“of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Whilst we know from Scripture that Adam ate of that forbidden fruit, we equally know that he didn't physically die on that same day. This warning wasn’t therefore just talking about bodily death. In fact, Genesis 5:5 tells us, “And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.” It couldn’t also have been his soul that would die otherwise life would immediately become extinct. The soulish man lived on. This must have been referring to a spiritual death which would separate man from that perfect communion he enjoyed with God. If spiritual death was the first death man experienced, the next death that he experienced, which was a direct result of the first, was
physical death. The fall left mankind in a hopeless ruined state facing a certain two-fold death. Left to his own devices, man was destined for “the Lake of Fire” and
eternal spiritual and physical death.
Every man since Adam is born with original sin and therefore completely guilty before a righteous God. The Bible says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so
death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). When Adam fell his desires automatically changed from being God-ward to being self-ward. Natural man with Adam’s blood is born with that same corrupt aspiration. He is a rebel. In this, he will always go the way of sin. That is his natural inclination. This had to be corrected. That is why Christ (the second Adam) came. In salvation, Christ restores that desire for God and the things of God.
To rescue man from his inevitable doom, he needed God in His sovereign grace to intervene on his behalf.
Ephesians 2:1 reveals how all men “in Adam” are
“dead in trespasses and sins.” Colossians 2:13 personalises this truth to the individual, saying,
“you, being dead in your sins.” What man in general therefore required was divine intervention, which would raise him from the wretched repercussions of dual death and correct his inevitable deserved double-sentence. Man inherited that awful sinful nature and is consequently birthed in spiritual death. Moreover, it is this corrupt nature that ultimately separates man from God.
Man – in all generations – inherited Adam’s awful sinful nature, which ultimately separates man from a holy God. The first resurrection therefore that man needed was a
spiritual resurrection to expiate the awful spiritual death sentence that he inherits. The second resurrection he required was a
physical resurrection to (redeem or) replace the corruptible physical tabernacle that he inhabited. 2 Corinthians 5:14 declares,
“if one died for all, then were all dead.” Our Dispensational brethren would do well to consider this; because if all were dead in sin, then they could similarly only be revived in Christ. Romans 7:6 confirms that we were spiritual destitute and dead prior to salvation. Paul testifies of our hopeless pre-conversion state:
“that being dead wherein we were held.”
Whilst the first death that man enters into by natural birth is spiritual death, the first death that sees its full realization in all men is physical death. The germ of spiritual death – which is eternal in the Christ-rejecter – is found in every man born since Adam, although it doesn’t see its final sentence in this scene of time. The continuation of spiritual death in an unrepentant sinner’s life, whilst beginning
before physical death, doesn’t find its ultimate recompense until
after natural death, at the final judgment. It is only then that the unregenerate man enters into the awful realization of the penalty of spiritual death – eternal punishment and separation from a holy God – when he is cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death.
It is interesting that Revelation 20 or no other book of the Bible alludes to the ‘second resurrection' or the ‘first death' in such terms. The reason is simple. Every single human (outside of the believers that will be alive and waiting for Christ at His Second Advent) will take part in both. The “first resurrection” and the “second death” are different. Only the righteous experience the “first resurrection” and only the wicked experience the “second death” That’s why much is made of them in Revelation 20. We also no that Revelation beautifully correlates with the rest of Scripture.
Paul says,
“she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth” (1 Timothy 5:6). It is obvious from this reading that Paul is not speaking of physical death here, but rather of spiritual death. Manifestly, Paul is referring to the woman that still possesses natural life, although she is expressly devoid of spiritual life. Her indulgence in the desires of the flesh separates her from communion with the living God. Christ must therefore first raise her from her sin before she can ever enter into the joy of sins forgiven and therefore true spiritual life. We see the exact same idea presented in Revelation 3:1 where Christ speaks to the Church of Sardis,
“thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.” Again, we are unquestionably dealing a situation of physical life but spiritual death.
When Christ was calling the disciples to give up all and follow Him, one disciple responded, “suffer me first to go and bury my father (Matthew 8:21). Jesus replied unto him, “
let the dead bury their dead.” Or paraphrased, ‘
let the spiritually dead bury their physical dead’.
Jesus advances the parable of the Prodigal in Luke 15:21-24, and demonstrates how the Son came home in humble petition, crying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.” The father then put a robe upon him “and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.” Then, after killing the “fatted calf” the father testifies, “
this my son was dead, and
is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” Once more, this is plainly referring to the spiritual quickening of the son (who was spiritually dead) and his entering into a position of new life within the elect family. Evidently it can’t be talking about physical life as he was very much alive in his sin and rebellion in the far country.
The word rendered “alive” in this verse is the Greek word
anézeesen, which is the aorist active indicative of the verb ‘to live’. It is used only 5 times in the New Testament – the passage in view, Romans 14:9, Revelation 2:8 and Revelation 13:14 and significantly Revelation 20:4 – when describing the redeemed that “
lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
Romans 6:23 succinctly tells us:
“For the wages of sin is death.”
Getting a revelation of the sinfulness of sin and the consequence of that sin brings an automatic response to the penitent.