This relies on what period of the sport you reference:

• Pre-Sixth Edition (1993-1999), which used the batch.
• Sixth Edition (1999) and onwards, which launched the stack.

Your query referenced the early nineties, but in addition references the stack. The stack did not exist within the early nineties, and with out it neither did the damage-on-the-stack rule. It’s not clear which period you are inquisitive about so I’m going to deal with each of them.

Pre-Sixth Edition and the Batch (1993–1999)

The vanilla survives.

The MTG Wiki offers us a abstract of the batch from the Fourth Edition guidelines booklet:

Batch (Obsolete)

A sequence of non-interrupt quick results that construct on each other as gamers reply to one another’s spells. Batches are resolved by first-in, last-out for all results. Any harm achieved to creatures or gamers is not utilized till the tip of the batch, however creatures which are destroyed by means aside from harm are despatched to the graveyard instantly and regeneration and/or loss of life results are checked when this happens.

— From the The Pocket Players’ Guide for Magic: The Gathering – Fourth Edition (1995)

In Alpha, each Giant Growth and Lightning Bolt had been instantaneous spells and due to this fact used the batch. (As against interrupts, which might play out in a different way.)

Essentially, the character of the batch could be that we resolve all the factor in a single go, most up-to-date first… however apply harm solely on the finish! That offers us the next end result:

1. We start resolving the batch. Lightning Bolt resolves first, as a result of it was forged final. Its harm isn’t utilized but.
2. Giant Growth resolves, and the vanilla will get +3/+3.
3. The batch ends. The harm from Lightning Bolt is utilized solely now. The vanilla is now a 5/5 and survives the three harm.

This means your first bullet level, whereas referencing the stack, sounds unintuitive and incorrect—since you’re truly describing what occurs with the batch as an alternative.

Side word: What would change if certainly one of these spells was an interrupt?

The behaviour of an interrupt was to resolve instantly, as an alternative of ready till we begin resolving the batch. If Lightning Bolt was an interrupt, it will truly have the ability to apply its harm earlier than Giant Growth utilized its impact, which might kill the vanilla. (If Giant Growth had been an interrupt, there’d be no general distinction in end result.)

Sixth Edition and the Stack (1999 onwards)

The vanilla dies.

The idea of the stack was launched with Sixth Edition on 21 April 1999. Thanks to the Wayback Machine and Venser’s Journal we now have an archived copy of the 23 April 1999 Comprehensive Rules. Reviewing it, we will see that harm is just placed on the stack as a part of the fight harm step. Spells simply deal their harm instantly as a part of decision:

408.2. Actions That Don’t Use the Stack

408.2a Effects do not go on the stack. When a spell or capability resolves, its directions are executed instantly.

This means we get this end result:

1. Lightning Bolt resolves first, as a result of it was forged final. It offers 3 harm to the vanilla.
2. We verify state-based actions (rule 420) and the vanilla is destroyed & despatched to the graveyard for having deadly harm (rule 420.5c).
3. We attempt to resolve Giant Growth, nevertheless it has no legitimate goal remaining and is countered (413.3).

That’s what we might count on right this moment, with the exception that Giant Growth would merely fail to resolve as an alternative of being countered (due to Dominaria’s guidelines modifications in 2018).