In an article published in the Latter Rain Evangel in June, 1913, I was surprised to discover teaching that agreed with my views on the First Fruits of Rev. 7 regarding the Rapture, the Bride, and Great Tribulation. This article was later published as a tract and sold by that Pentecostal newspaper. The article was written by a former missionary and author of books and many other articles in various Pentecostal newspapers of the time. An important quote from the article is below the image:
Thus God in Tribulation times deals first with the Church as nearest to Him and most likely to apprehend His purpose; afterwards with His covenant people, and third with the far-away peoples of the world. In Revelation 7 we see “four angels on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree,” till there has been the sealing of “the servants of our God.”
So now we see the tribulation elements everywhere abroad, and the spirit o f the coming Antichrist in all the air, yet nothing is allowed to head up until a certain number, (a hundred and forty-four thou- sand, or what it spiritually symbolizes) are “accounted worthy,” because they have let the Lord make them worthy “to escape all these things that shall come to pass.” (Luke 21 :36) And they shall in that fearful hour of earth’s travail throes be above all, standing “before the Son of Man.” In other words, until the first-fruits are caught away, full-blown tribulation sorrow may not avalanche the earth.
The signs about us are premonitory and may well make our hearts shiver, but though we talk about being on the fringe of the Great Tribulation, we do not dream of its horrors, so unexampled by anything old earth has yet seen. “For then shall be great tribulation such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time; no, nor ever shall be.” Matt. 24:21. But with the catching away of the bride or the first-fruits of her, the angels of delay cease to hold the winds, and earth’s cyclones of terrors begin. They fall first and heaviest upon the Christians left behind.
(The Three Aspects of the Great Tribulation, Miss Elizabeth Sisson)