Dead means "separated." It doesn't mean "nonexistent" or "unconscious." "Dead in trespasses and sins" is just an easier way to say "separated from God because of your trespasses and sins."
It DOES mean exactly that, GD!
It means their spirits are experiencing "spiritual separation," being cut off from their Creator as a result of their sin!
Again, death is not cessation of existence or unconsciousness. It's separation.
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GD something I'm noticing about those who assert that death is anything other than separation of two entities, you included, is that they fail to show how our position fails to explain scripture. Rather, the arguments against death being separation are always made from the perspective that it is something other than that.
If you want to show our position to be inconsistent with itself, then you need to show how it's inconsistent INTERNALLY, not how it's inconsistent with your personal beliefs.