No, FK, death is a state.
OK, but what does that MEAN? What is the difference between death as a "state" and what you have heard Harley and me describe as an immortal soul? The Bible is absolutely clear that a soul may be "dead" to God, BUT it is certainly "alive" to actual experience in hell. If all the Bible verses discussing this, and there are many, are ALL WRONG, then Orthodoxy is hoarding to itself some of the greatest secrets of Christianity. You even leave your Latin brethren completely in the dark. Where is the correct text of the Bible in English? The percentage of Orthodox who use English as a first language can't be THAT negligible. :)
Plus, isn't it the duty of your clergy to carry the message to all nations, including those that speak English? According to the arguments I've heard, plus Kolo's article, English speakers don't have a chance.
FK: "At what point does a mortal soul become immortal?"
When it is restored by grace.
Well I KNOW that. :) When does that happen within time?
Grace is given. We are made alive and immortal through God's grace and nothing we do merits it.
I believe you added that the grace must be accepted. I'm asking when that happens. For example, there is a watershed moment in our theology when the believer receives/accepts God's grace and then asks Jesus into his heart. Now, I realize that Apostolics are much more into a process system, however there has to be a moment within time at which the soul turns from mortal to immortal. IOW, does it just follow the same ebb and flow of one's permeable salvation status? My guess would be "yes". My guess would be that it is completely within Orthodox theology for a person's soul to be mortal one minute, then immortal the next, then mortal again the following minute. If true, doesn't that throw out the actual meaning of the word?
FK: OK, but what does that MEAN?
How about: darkness is loss of ligth. Death is loss of life. God is life and light of our souls. If we die separated from God, our soul is deprived of God's life-giving enegries and exists in spiritual darkness.
The Bible uses verbal imagery to "depict" the state of separation of the souls from God in a way that we can relate to. We really don't know what death "feels" like. Thus hell is depicte din many ways, all of which have a common theme and that is that the eternal state of separation from God is something none of us would wish.
If all the Bible verses discussing this, and there are many, are ALL WRONG, then Orthodoxy is hoarding to itself some of the greatest secrets of Christianity
You are too busy reading literally what's in the Bible. These are allegorical references to heaps of fire of Jerusalem garbage dumps, to burning sufur lake, to cold and desolate place where the warmth of God enver reached (outer space where the tenperature approaches absolute zero?), etc. he comon threatd to all is true and clear: Hell is hell!
My guess would be that it is completely within Orthodox theology for a person's soul to be mortal one minute, then immortal the next, then mortal again the following minute. If true, doesn't that throw out the actual meaning of the word?
The wages of sin are death; and we sin avery day, every minute of ours life on earth. So, I would say you are right.