If we take what God told Adam, literally word for word, "dying ye shall die," and indeed, I think it was Paul that said that he died every day. However, in speaking of Christ, scripture says, "a smoldering wick He will not quench" and so it offers pause to consider the idea whether a smoldering wick, still has the potential in it to be reignited. That is, is a smoldering wick still 'live'? Smoky the Bear used to warn campers about leaving smoldering fires unattended, after all.
Even if that translation is accurate (which is how YLT reads), that still wouldn't mean that Adam didn't die spiritually the moment he ate and eventually physically. After all, Adam became a living being by virtue of God "breathing" the Spirit of Life into him whereby he became a living being physically AND spiritually!
Also, the text does say specifically...
in the day you eat. So, are we to understand that as meaning..."in the day you eat...dying ye shall die"? (By the way...that is the first prophecy in scripture.). If God meant to convey the idea of slowly dying over the course of very many days, then why did he say "in the day you eat"?
Furthermore, there's clear evidence that Adam did die spiritually on that day because both he and Eve ran and hid themselves from God. They instinctively separated themselves from the presence of God and that is precisely what spiritual death isn't it? They feared him because they knew they sinned against him. They knew they were guilty.
Thirdly, we know from the OT that God who gave his Spirit freely also took him away just as freely!
Also, are we to believe that the Holy Spirit wasn't taken from Adam after he sinned....yet all his progeny come into this world as spiritual stillborns!? How could that be!? If we inherit his sin, how come we don't also inherit his spiritual life, if the Spirit didn't depart from him? Yet, scripture teaches that we ourselves
are the Darkness of Death when enter this world! Adam is always, always, always
contrasted with the Last Adam. But if you deny he died spiritually, then you must put him on par with the Last Adam of whom it is written:
Isa 11:1-3
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him —
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD —
3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
NIV
Is this your idea of Adam, as well? He compares very well with the Last Adam? Adam stayed filled with the Holy Spirit after he sinned? That's why he ran and hid from God - and even worse
tripled down on his Original Sin by denying his guilt (itself a lie!) and implying to God that he gave him a defective woman, so his predicament is God's fault and the woman's (another lie!)? Also, God clearly implied in the post-Fall account that Adam was of the Serpent's seed, yet he was still alive in the Spirit? How does that work exactly? How does one simultaneously be alive in the Spirit while at the same time being the spiritual seed of Satan?
Yes, Paul said he dies daily -- not to God but to HIMSELF so that he can LIVE to God! Big difference!
P.S. Also, ol' Smoky never had to worry about putting out any "smoldering wicks" in the dark dead souls of sinners who naturally hate the light.