The death spoken of to Adam in the Garden of Eden, was that of a spiritual nature. Adam and Eve were made innocent and represent the lineage of God's people. They fell through disobedience, (not from eating an "apple"). OUR story begins here, and is separate from any other.
I realize that this idea is widely accepted. I would like to throw something into the pot to be considered.
There is no record of any spirit dying in the Bible. The opposite is the case. Angels, who are spirits, cannot die (Ps.104:4; Lk.20:36). It is true that a man has a spirit (1st Thess.5:23) but there is no record of it ever dying. At physical death it returns to God Who gave it (Eccl.3:21, 12:7). The human spirit gives a man his life (Jas.2:26), so a dead spirit would have caused Adam's physical death anyway. And finally, maintaining that Adam's spirit could die presupposes that he had spiritual life. But he had not eaten from the Tree of Life.
But proving the above is only half the matter, for we must still explain why Adam died "IN that day" that he ate. The answer seems to me to be plain. God specifically and purposefully gave the time of each of the six days in which He made the earth pristine. It was the Hebrew day that is from sunset to sunset - "the evening and the morning". But just as specifically God defined the first six days, He left the Seventh UNDEFINED. There is no time placed on that day ... or is there?
2nd Peter 1:20 forbids private interpretation. The human and fallen mind is unfit for fathoming the things of God. So God allows no private interpretation. What is left to us then is that we may only interpret scripture with scripture. Taking this rule, we investigate all the "DAYS" in scripture, for the threat against Adam was,
"IN the day you eat ... you shall surely die." And our study will show that there are five differently defined "days" in scripture. They are;
- The period of daylight - sunrise to sunset (e.g. Gen.1:5)
- 24 hours - the evening and the morning (e.g. Gen.1:8)
- An event like the "Day of the Lord" (e.g. 2nd Pet.3:10)
- 1 year - mostly used in prophecy (e.g. Nu.14:34; Ezek.4:6; Dan.9:24-26)
- 1,000 years is as a DAY to God (Ps.90:4; 2nd Pet.3:8)
Adam lived 930 years. Thus, only one "day" fits - the "day" to God, but which is 1,000 years long. God was defining the first Sabbath. But now we must explain why God did that. Why did God go to this method to define Adam's first full day? The answer is that in Hebrews Chapters 3 and 4 God predicts a future Sabbath Rest. And He defines it as the time that Israel occupied their Land. Those who fell in the wilderness did not ENTER the "REST", and those who were cast out at the Babylonian deportations did not complete the Sabbath Rest. God asks, "where is MY REST"? And once again, the time from Joshua crossing the Jordan until Judah was carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, was just under 1,000 years. And a search of this "future REST" is also easy to find. In Revelation Chapter 20, Christ rules this old earth for the first part of His eternal Kingdom for 1,000 years!
From Adam to Christ is 4,000 years. From Christ's first coming to His second is 2,000 years. That is, Christ will start His Kingdom after 6,000 years - or, six 1,000 year-days. What Adam's life predicted was this future Kingdom of 1,000 years.
Adam died physically IN the first Sabbath - just short of its completion, at 930 years.