Question: When does the Epiphany as a period end?

Answer: The Epiphany as a period of time, like the Gospel Age and the Parousia, ends lappingly, that is, it has various endings corresponding to the various beginnings of the Basileia (Kingdom) period as a separate stage of Jesus’ Second Advent. Thus, the Gospel Age began to end in 1874; for the Gospel Age Harvest began at that time, when “the Lord of the Harvest” arrived (Matthew 13: 39). But 1874 marked not only when the Gospel Age first began to end, but also when the Millennial Age, the Thousand-year Reign of Christ, had its first lapping beginning; for it was then, at the beginning of the seventh thousand-year day, the Millennial Sabbath, that “the Lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6: 5) arrived. The Gospel Age has several endings and the Millennial Age has several beginnings as they lap into each other, namely, 1874, 1878, 1881, and 1914; and other respective endings and beginnings have occurred since 1914, and will occur. Obviously in their lapping into each other we are still in the Gospel Age in its closing features, though we have passed over 100 years into the Millennial Age.

Similarly the Parousia and the Epiphany lap into each other. The Parousia in its 40-year, restricted, sense lapped into the Epiphany from September 16, 1914 to October 16, 2016. As respects Jesus’ Second Advent the Bible uses the word parousia in three senses: (1) the 40 years of the reaping, that is, from 1874 until the beginning of the Epiphany, in 1914, when the Time of Trouble broke out in the first phase of the World War; (2) the 80 years from 1874 to 1954, that is, to include the Parousia in the first sense and the Epiphany as a period in its 40-year restricted sense; and (3) the entire 1,000 years of His Second Advent.

Lapping of the Epiphany and the Basileia

Also the Epiphany period ends lappingly in its succeeding period, the basileia or Kingdom period. Just as the Parousia in its narrow, 40-year, sense ended in 1914, when the Epiphany began, though the Parousia in wider senses continued and still continues as it laps over into the successive stages of the Epiphany; so the Epiphany in its narrow, 40-year, sense ended in the Fall of 1954, when the Basileia began to open up, even though the Epiphany laps over into the Basileia period and ends in stages, even as the Basileia opens up in stages.

There are certain distinctions that need to be kept in mind respecting the Epiphany. So far as the world is concerned, the Epiphany is divided into four distinct periods: (1) the War and its aftermath; (2) the Revolution, or Armageddon, and its aftermath; (3) Anarchy and its aftermath; and (4) Jacob’s Trouble and its aftermath. But so far as God’s people are concerned, it is divided into two periods: (1) the time in which the Priesthood dealt with Azazel’s Goat, and (2) the time in which the Priesthood dealt with the cleansed Levites.

In summary, we see that the Epiphany, both so far as the world is concerned and so far as God’s people are concerned, has various endings as it laps into the Basileia. This does not mean that the New Covenant has yet been inaugurated and the Highway of Holiness has opened up for mankind. But since the Fall of 1954 a distinct Kingdom work has been inaugurated – the building up of the Epiphany Camp as distinct from the Epiphany Court, which is the Lord’s preparation of people here in the latter parts of the Time of Trouble for the blessings of restitution under the soon-coming New Covenant.