For me:

Spiritually alive:  Someone who is in tune with what gives them meaning and purpose.

Spiritually dead:  Someone who isn't in tune with what gives them meaning and purpose.

So, then, depression (normal depression) becomes a Spiritual condition?

"Spiritually dead" is a derogative term used to dismiss someone's thoughts and to dehumanize that person.

Except depression can have a physiological basis, treatable by medication.  A condition of the brain, not the mind or spirit.

I would define spiritually dead as someone who has shut out love from their lives  -  as Paul said,  love is a gift of the Spirit.  Shutting out love is like shutting down your spiritual life.

Spiritual Death ---to me is

To be physically dead means our soul separates from our physical body so to be spiritually dead means our soul ----which is our Mind -Will and Emotions are separated from God's --Mind --Will and Emotions that He wants for us to follow . We are disconnected from God Spiritually. When God created Adam he was totally connected with God --He had great Fellowship with his Father. When he ate the forbidden fruit his -Mind--Will and emotions were no longer fully connected to his Father's. Fear and doubt crept in and when God called to Adam he hid himself from the one who created him. 

To be Spiritually Alive -- to me is

Being fully spiritually connected to God through a personal relationship by way of reading and studying His word and through prayer . Being able to apply Godly wisdom in daily decisions and plans . Being able to forgive when hurt . Having control over emotions and lustful desires  etc . Living in personal peace -joy-health-prosperity and happiness. Being aware and alert as to what God's purpose is for our life. Worship God rather than other people and things including money.

Blessings 

In  traditional  Christianity what unsafe has posted would be correct  I suppose or one who didn't believe the teachings would probably be considered spiritually dead.

Looking outside of Christianity I'd have to agree with Arminius quote :

"I think only someone who is brain dead is spiritually dead."

The word spirit  or spirited is used a lot outside of the holy books in everyday conversation. It is used as in a spirited horse, a great team spirit, free spirit,  a forlorn spirit, a  mean spirit etc. but I've never heard the term " a dead spirit" in daily usage.

Quotes I like:

the life principle,

or the presence of God.

All things that exist

are infused with consciousness —

some are greatly infused,

some only slightly.

The Hebrew word behind spirit is ruach, and it means "air in motion." It is the same word for "breath." It also means "life." By resemblance to breath and air in motion, it means "spirit."

Spirit arises as a sort of steam, or vapour from the infinity of love, in the ocean of love. The activity of soul in the waters, moving individually, creates this mist or spirit as a semi permanent fixture, or addition to the ocean of love. This spirit can penetrate the ocean, and reach the individual soul, and so replenish it with itself to show it, that although it feels separate, and separated from God, it remains part of, and in contact with God, the infinite ocean of love, that it swims in still, without sometimes knowing this, or being aware of this fact.

Here are some Calvinist links. I didn't read them much but maybe someone is interested.

Rev. John and other Calvinists: I'm just posting this as information regarding the term "spiritually dead" .  I know very little about Calvinists so I'm not interested in arguing or debating.

Quote: 

"Extreme Calvinists put the new birth before faith, since they believe that spiritually dead humans cannot exercise faith and, therefore, need to be born again before they can believe" [C. Gordon Olson, Beyond Calvinism and Arminianism, p. 39]. The doctrine of man’s total depravity has been carried to the extreme by some Calvinists resulting in a wrong understanding of man’s inability. They believe that the sinner is dead in sin and therefore he is like a corpse, totally unable to do anything. They believe he first must be regenerated and have life and only then will he be able to believe the gospel.  But the Scripture teaches that he must believe in order to have life (John 20:31).

The hungry one in Oz?

My reputation proceeds me. 

If thought and emotion are equitable as  gheist ... which is coming and which is Goan (old hindi expression for a travelling spirit)?

Perhaps this could explain the expression you never understand emotions until you see them goin' the as is end of an enigma? That should get Hobbes and Loch into a dither!

Is emotion a mystery a sord of wordy God whereas the enscribed word in black ... absence of colour so we couldn't see nuthin without the surroundings ... defined by Webster as all that is aura about the bode & will ...

Did that come across the Blackpool stream well or just as a rael stinker (Pêðrè) in variable tongues? O'hear we goan ajin ...

The the cite could use a wee Eumerus, aL ang'L'd ...

From a file called Anglein Saac UNE:

LMAO

Hi Azdgari,

Well, you got me there.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Perhaps, a typical biblical text might illustrate what many mean by this claim.  I'm quoting a portion of the risen Jesus' prophetic message to the Church of Sardis: "I know all that you do and that you have a reputation for being alive--but you are dead.  Now wake up!  Strengthen what remains, for even what is left is at the point of death.  Your deeds are far from right in the sight of God (Revelation 2:1-2)," 

On a lighter note, long ago I heard this rant from a Pentecostal preacher that had the merit of being completely memorable on one hearing: "I like my religion the way I like my tea--hot!  Because I'd rather be a fool on fire than a scholar on ice and it's easier to cool a hot coal than to warm up a corpse.  Honestly, when I drive by these liberal churches, I take my hat off out of respect for the dead!"  Churches with high octane emotional exuberance in worship often view more sedate Christians like those in my  church as spiritually "dead." 

Don

Spiritual death in the New Testament, is the lack of eternal life. "Eternal" I would say, is a quality of life, not neccesarily a quantitiy of time that this type of life would be held for. Jesus repeatedly speaks about getting "life", why would he say that, if everyone is obviously already alive? If you are in a state of needing life, than by default you are....? If you are physically alive then what kind of dead could you be, other than spiritually dead?

In my own understanding... to be spiritually dead is to be seperated from God because of our sinfulness. It is the state into which each of us is born. To become spiritually alive one must accept Christ into their heart.

Just enough time to lurk through some W-Cafe comments, but I had to respond to this one.

I'm sorry Jae, but this was funny. The idea that we are born in sin is an outdated doctrine and one that won't survive the future.

Chansen,  for this.

Jae, we become spiritually dead through our own volition, our own choice.

I think for Jesus—and according to his teachings—being spiritually alive meant to experience unity, unitive awareness and unitive love, and act on those. The spiritual experience was his "Kingdom," and attaining the experience and acting on it was far more important than practicing rituals. The rituals were important only inasmuch as they led to the experience and the appropriate action. The rituals were the means, the experience and the action the end, and the end was what really mattered. Practicing rituals without the spiritual experience and the appropriate action was being spiritually dead. And for those whe were spirtually alive the rituals didn't matter. Hence: Let the dead bury the dead.

Seek ye first the kingdom.

-Jesus

Is a child borne of nothing but Love ... and has to learn through life of the spirit of Light ...

Omega'd awareness!

And authority deems to keep the wee people in the dark, well-doused and up to their ears ...

Freud: "Something 'll come Ovið!"

Reverse fleur-ID ... a gathering of Light ... Jae sous where did that come from ...

In the beginning a dark formless void ... then ...

Of course I disagree with your assessment of the current state of the doctrine. On the other hand, I agree that in the future it will no longer hold true. That future will begin when there is a new heaven and earth, and the current things are done away with. Then the blessed will live with God forever more, and the wicked will have been condemned to everlasting hellfire.

I do not agree. However, I do hold that we accept spiritual life through our own volition, our own choice. Spiritual death is the default position.

It could be today or it could be 1000 years from now. There is no reason to be snarky.

There is ample reason to be snarky.  Jae is telling me that I'll be "condemned to everlasting hellfire".  All I'm saying is, Christians have been predicting the end times to happen "any day now" for thousands of years, citing all kinds of reasons that supposedly align with biblical prophesies.

Based on the track record of Christian predictions, there is no better reason to think that some prophesy won't happen, than to have a Christian tell you this prophesy is going to happen.

he's snarky because of his original sin nature

I'm just pointing out how ridiculous the whole end times/rapture/eternal hellfire predictions are.  I'm eternally grateful for Christians who keep bringing this up, because I can have a lot of fun with this stuff, and Christians can take solace knowing that I'll be burning for eternity over it all.  Here's how that will probably sound:

"Ow, the heat.  It's biblically hot in here, and it seems to be going on for eternity.  Ouch, ouch."

Which war, famine, leader, or other reason from history are you using this time?  Is it the invention of the IPad that has you convinced this time?  The Haitian earthquake?  Or are you looking further back?  Is it WWI?  The Great Depression?  The Dark Ages?  Sonny and Cher?

So, the end is coming soon, because there have always been reasons to predict the end is coming soon.  Got it.

You have every right to disagree with me, and I admit that I was a little terse with my response. We, the vast, vast majority of "us", all come into this life with preconditioned karmas. And by "karmas", I am talking about experiences we've had with creation. Creation is energy and light. And our involvement with it and our consequent evolution out of it, creates conditioning in the mind, spirit and body. These are our debts, good and bad. They are the effects of our causes within cyclic evolution.

Standing outside of cyclic evolution, (or is that more accurately said 'standing in the centre of cyclic evolution'?), is a part of us that isn't involved with conditioning. Our inner Being, that internal "Spark of Life" that can be found in everything in the universe. It is the God within that is not effected by the storm of creation. Standing of the periphery of Life, however, and involved in creation through light, time and space, is our Becoming, that part of us that is the ephemeral and manifests through the outer, manifested universe.

"Our Being is unchanging, whereas our becoming is a process of time and space". Our Being is the God within, expressing itself through the medium of creation, that is, through the light and energy of creation. It manifest through us as mind, spirit and body. These are the temples of the Lord.

The Self within is that 'spark' of the God Immanent. Creation is Its a reflection, the God Transcendent (outside) of the God Immanent (inside). This Spark of God within is what we simply call, for lack of a better term, "Life". Life exists outside of time and space and outside of vibration. Life exists outside of light and beyond creation. There is, of course, no proof of this, but those who are aware of the subtle forces in life know this to be true. Science will eventually prove this and begin to measure the most subtle, the "light within the light".

So with the above in mind, I could agree with you and say that, 'yes', our karmic conditionings makes us who we are when we're born, and that we could call this, to some degree at least, being 'born in sin'.

However, our destiny is be free. Free from the conditionings of the mind, spirit and body. Free from the karmas of cyclic evolution. Free from the conditionings of time, space and matter.

No one is born without the opportunity to rise above their station in life. No one is 'born in sin' in a manner that offers no free will or choice for the betterment of themselves. Life is love and the opportunity for Awareness is always standing before us.

Living life with sincerity of spirit, honesty of mind, and above all detachment, is all that is expected from us. But above all, the teachers tell us, be who you are. Don't copy or mimic anyone. If you are a new born Christian, a Catholic or a Jew, it doesn't matter what the religion, the important thing to remember is that we be who we are. Through sincerity, honesty and detachment our 'sin', our karmic conditioning, can be dealt with most directly and most effectively.

In light of all of the above, I believe that we do become spiritually dead through our own volition. We are the ones that move away from the Awareness of God, it's never the other way around. Take one step towards awareness and that Awareness will take two steps towards you. On this, I think we agree.