No, we're good on the important things. Nothing wrong with disagreeing on matters that aren't clear doctrinally. I do have a different view, but I also respect your view.
I think I've held your view for a long time until for some reason it got changed. I'll try to clarify what these changes are and why I changed them. It's okay if you don't agree.
I think the spirit, soul, and body are, as you say, parts of the whole being. I got much of my view on the "soul" from Watchman Nee, who taught that the Scriptures viewed the soul of man as the invisible part of man that has mind, will, and emotions.
He wrote a long book called "The Spiritual Man" that treated these things, but he was only 25 years old at the time he wrote this. Still, it was a very good book.
It is very difficult to see the mind of the soul as distinct from the human brain. What would you "think" without a brain? And yet, we are depicted as a person even with the body dead and gone. If we are still a person without the brain, we must still have reason, and we must therefore think even without a brain.
I began to believe that we, as former pagans, were dead in our spirits because, quite frankly, that is what I was taught. Being alienated from Christ, and not knowing the "mind of Christ," I figured they were right--we had to be spiritually dead. (To be honest, I've never been truly a "pagan," but have lived like a pagan for awhile.)
But over time I realized that in the pagan world there is a conscience and a sense of God. Though they are not redeemed and regenerated, they are able to make use of God's power and Spirit to do certain good works. This may take place without their even being conscious of it. And in the Bible we see this as well, with certain pagans doing some good things.
I cannot say, then, that pagans have no spirit or even a dead spirit. We've all been sentenced to death, eventually, but we are not technically dead until our bodies leave our souls.
So I now see our spirit as the element that gives our bodies existence, whether it is regenerated or not. It is not dead--just limited without relying on Jesus regularly for our good works.
What is the value in looking at things this way? I don't know--it's just an interesting subject. Carry on....
I might add this.
Nee saw the functions of the spirit as communion, intuition, and conscience. These are elements that he might have agreed with you were dead before we came to know Christ.
I think that the spirit, in giving us life and animating our bodies, still functions even without fully resorting to God's Word and Spirit. As long as we live our spirits are alive--they are just not "alive" in the Spirit, so to speak.
Until our spirits submit to God's Word and Spirit we cannot do anything of lasting value in God's Kingdom. But we can do a certain amount of good when we even unconsciously cooperate with God's Word.
And so, I do see our spirits as less "dead" and more "limited in functionality" when we are pagans. The fact the Word of God can "awaken" our spirits indicate our spirits are still alive and capable of receive input from God.
The most important thing is not just enabling our spirits to respond to God's Spirit and Word. Even more important is that we *commit* to it by making a covenant relationship with God, accepting Him as Lord and Savior. In this way we commit to living in the light, and our spirits are fully regenerated, equipped to serve God at any notice. We don't just do good works regularly--we emit Christ and reveal Him in our lives. His character becomes our character...hopefully.
