When Adam sinned, did his spirit become completely annihilated or just dead/dormant?
Adam’s spirit was not annihilated when he sinned. It became dormant—dead in the sense of no longer in fellowship and communication with God, yet the spark remained. His whole personality became a sin nature bent to sinning, just as a dead car battery is not destroyed.
Les teaches that when Adam was created, he had a body, a soul, and a spirit, and he was in fellowship with God. His soul—mind, will, and emotion—was in perfect agreement with the Creator, and his spirit had fellowship with God as he walked with Him in the garden. When Adam sinned, his whole personality became what Paul calls a sin nature, bent to sinning, and communication with God was affected. The teacher prefers the word dormant because the spirit was not annihilated; the spark, he thinks, is still there, but it is dead. He illustrates this with a car battery left with lights on overnight: the next morning it is dead, yet not destroyed.