JW1983 has this blog entry:

http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/01/bible-students-teach-false-view-that.html

This is very good! JW1983, are you the author of the first part? The later half is from the WTS.

Quote from the Proclaimers book:
chap. 10 p. 132 Growing in Accurate Knowledge of the Truth
Throughout their modern-day history, Jehovah’s Witnesses have consistently championed the Scriptural teaching of the ransom. The very first issue of Zion’s Watch Tower (July 1879) emphasized that “merit toward God lies . . . in Christ’s perfect sacrifice.” In 1919, at a convention sponsored by the International Bible Students Association at Cedar Point, Ohio, the printed program featured prominently the words “Welcome! All Believers in the Great Ransom Sacrifice.” The inside front cover of The Watchtower continues to draw attention to the ransom, saying concerning the purpose of the magazine: “It encourages faith in God’s now-reigning King, Jesus Christ, whose shed blood opens the way for mankind to gain eternal life.”
Progressive, Not Creed-Bound
Clear understanding of God’s Word did not come all at once. In many cases the Bible Students grasped one detail of the pattern of truth but did not yet see the complete picture. Nevertheless, they were willing to learn. They were not creed-bound; they were progressive.
(end quote)

Case in point, CTR believed that Adam would be redeemed by the ransom and resurrected, right? Yet, notice his response to Fredrick Franz in 1916:

w87 5/1 p. 26 Looking Back Over 93 Years of Living
Upon finishing lunch, he asked if anyone had a Bible question. I asked about the likelihood of Adam’s being resurrected in view of the fact that he was an unrepentant, willful sinner. With a twinkle in his eye, he replied: “Brother, you are asking a question and answering it at the same time. Now, just what was your question?” (end quote)

So, even though we may not have had all the wrinkles ironed out of the ransom doctrine, we were willing to advance. I wonder when it became clear to us that Adam lost eternal life?

Edit: added "in 1916"

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I changed the format just for You

http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/01/bible-students-teach-false-view-that.html

Questions From Readers, 1950 Watchtower, page 367

Does not the expression “in Christ shall all be made alive” include Adam?—P. E., Maryland.

Evidently Adam stood in a different position as regards redemption from that occupied by his descendants. He had the right to life, but did not value it or appreciate it enough to hold on to it; whereas his descendants never had the right to life and needed redemption from the beginning. It should be observed that in the statement “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” Adam is excluded from the comparison. (1 Cor. 15:22) We could not say that Adam died in Adam. Adam was personally sentenced to death for his own willful wrongdoing, but not his offspring. Nor does the Bible anywhere say that Adam was the one ransomed to thereby automatically release all his descendants. The ransom is not given for one, but “for many” or “for all”. (Matt. 20:28; 1 Tim. 2:6) However, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, the apostle is discussing the resurrection of Christ’s body members. The statement that “in Christ shall all be made alive” applies to all those “which are fallen asleep in Christ” (verses 6, 1, and not to mankind in general. (See The Watchtower, April 1, 1944, ¶¶22-25.) Hence those to be thus made alive must come into relationship to Christ as Life-giver and are made members of his body. Not all men receive the benefits of Christ’s ransom, but only “all them that obey him”. The condemnation inherited from Adam is lifted from those who believe and obey Christ Jesus; it remains upon those who do not believe and obey.—John 3:18, 36; Heb.

____________________

The Watchtower, April 1, 1944, ¶¶22-25

Paul’s use of the expression "firstfruits of them that slept" is noteworthy. Christ Jesus once slept in death. He being the firstfruits, then those sleeping in him must be the afterfruits of the "first resurrection" class and must become living fruit unto God by being brought out of the death-sleep. Hence the spirit of God caused the apostle to write further: "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." (1 Cor. 15: 21) The repeated word came being inserted by the Authorized Version Bible translators, The Emphatic Diagtott reads more accurately: "For since through a man, there is death, through a man, also, there is a resurrection of the dead." Verse 22 next adds: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

Are those two verses to be taken to mean a resurrection or even an awakening out of death for all the dead? To interpret verses 21 and 22 that way would mean disregarding the Scriptures that prove that many at death have perished, because they have gone down into destruction from which no recovery is possible. Certainly the apostle Paul was not disregarding such scripture texts, many of which he himself wrote. Under the divine inspiration he would not be guilty of contradicting himself. True it is that by Adam’s sin death passed upon all men descending from him, but not "second death", which is the death of destruction in gehenna. (Rev. 20: 14; 21: Hence those having only the inheritance of death that was unavoidable through Adam would be redeemable or be in line for a resurrection out of death. Those whose inherited condemnation to death had been added to by willful wickedness that brings the divine judgment of destruction have more than an inheritance from the first man. They go to gehenna, and are not among ’all those that are in their graves’ and who ’shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth’ in the resurrection
time.--John 5 : 28, 29.

"In Adam all die," by reason of death’s passing from him onto all his offspring; but it is not true that all such eventually die with merely the condemnation they inherited from Adam resting upon them. The malicious, deliberately wicked and rebels against God die not merely as descendants of Adam the sinner, but also as the seed of the Serpent, the children of the wicked one Satan. Adam was not responsible for their dying as such workers of iniquity against God. Hence all such could not be included among all those who in Christ shall be made alive; for Christ’s ransom sacrifice does not cover or cancel such sin of rebellious iniquity and willful wickedness.

It is evident, therefore, that the apostle’s words at 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22 are restricted in application, and that he has in mind all those he was writing about, namely, all those "which are fallen asleep in Christ". (Verses 6, 1 Without question, these were affected by the death that came by the first man, and they all died in Adam, because by him sin entered into the world and death by sin, and all these inherited sin from him and so death and its condemnation naturally passed upon them. But as in Adam they died, so in Christ they shall all be made alive. They shall come forth from the graves "unto a resurrection of life", because of having done good in God’s sight.--Rom. 5:12; John 5: 28, 29.

Sherlock(JW1983)




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Thank you Sherlock, this is a fascinating study.

I like this part from you:
"The Jehovah's Witnesses love Jesus, and yet many Bible Students hate us. The Jews reject Jesus and these same Bible Students love them. Funny how that works."

PS: I received my copy of CTR His Life and Times today.

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The 1928 book Reconciliation has some remarkable reasoning in it too:

Pages 36-7 says: (copied from PDF)
Had Adam manifested love for God he would have
said to Eve: ‘My Father is not a liar. He could not
be a liar. Why should he want to lie to us? Behold
this wonderful earth he has made and this marvelously
beautiful garden which he has given us for our
home. He made us and put us here to represent him.
He has given us all these blessed things to enjoy for
ever if we will only obey him. He told us not to eat
of that fruit. He has some good reason for asking us
not to eat of it. Why should we doubt him for a
moment? He has shown his great love for us and now
we must show our love for him. We may be sure that
when he sees fit to let us eat of that tree he will have
us do so.’

Had Adam taken such a course and had Eve repented
of her wrong and sought forgiveness at the
hands of Jehovah, God might have had some way to
cleanse her. To Adam he had given the command and
Eve had heard it from Adam. Adam was the head
and the great responsibility rested upon him, and Eve
being a part of him he was responsible for her acts,
and had he taken every possible step to rectify the
wrong Eve had committed the result would doubtless
have been different. Adam took the very opposite
course, He heeded his wife in utter disregard of his
gracious Father’s command. ...
(page 37)
Adam yielded to his
wife’s suggestion and wilfully violated God’s law by
eating the forbidden fruit.

It has been suggested that Adam’s great love for his
wife induced him to violate God’s law and that therefore
he is in a measure excusable. But did Adam love
his wife? No, he did not love her. When a man truly
loves one he looks after and safeguards the interests
of that one. Had Adam really loved his wife he would
have said: ‘You have done a great wrong, Eve. Come
now, I will seek our Bather’s face and beg him to
cleanse you from this great wrongful act.’ Adam’s
lack of love for God and lack of love for his wife, and
his selfish desire, moved him to violate God’s law. His
act and conduct show that he reasoned thus: ‘If Eve
must die, I will be deprived of her, and without her
I can not have so much joy and pleasure in this beautiful
garden and I do not want to be separated from
her. I will take my chance with her.’ The motive
prompting him to do that was selfish. He preferred
rather to become a pauper with Eve than to bo a
prince and remain in harmony with his great and
loving God. He chose the selfish and not the righteous
way. He showed ingratitude to God for all he had
received at his gracious hands. He was unthankful
and selfish and by his act proved that he was not
God’s friend. He became unrighteous and by his
wrongful act alienated himself from God and thereafter
could no longer dwell in the presence of Jehovah.
Only the righteous can dwell in his presence.
-Ps. 140:13.
(end quote)

This makes for some excellent reading, and shows that what occured in Eden was being carefully reviewed during the 1920s.