Antichrist

===Seventh-day Adventists===
[[Seventh-day Adventist Church|Seventh-day Adventists]] teach that the "Little Horn Power", which (as predicted in the [[Book of Daniel]]) rose after the break-up of the Roman Empire, is the [[Papacy]]. The [[Western Roman Empire]] collapsed in the late 5th century. In 533, [[Justinian I]], the emperor of the [[Eastern Roman Empire]] (which historians have labelled the Byzantine Empire), legally recognized the bishop (pope) of Rome as the head of all the Christian churches.<ref>
{{cite book
| last1                 = Levillain
| first1                = Philippe
| title                 = The Papacy: An Encyclopedia
| url                   = https://books.google.com/books?id=7VDcmDeLuV4C
| volume                = 2 
| publisher             = Psychology Press
| date      = 2002
| page                  = 832
| isbn                  = 978-0415922302
| access-date            = July 17, 2015
| quote                 = [Pope John II] received from Justinian a letter dated June 6, 533 [...]. In his letter, Justinian proclaimed that the Holy See is the leader of all the holy churches and confirmed the need for all churches to join together with Rome [...].
}}
</ref>
Because of the [[Arianism|Arian]] domination of some of the Roman Empire by barbarian tribes, the bishop of Rome could not fully exercise such authority. In 538, [[Belisarius]], one of Justinian's generals, [[Siege of Rome (537–38)|succeeded in withstanding a siege of the city of Rome]] by Arian [[Ostrogoths|Ostrogoth]] besiegers, and the bishop of Rome could begin establishing universal civil authority. So, by the military intervention of the Eastern Roman Empire, the bishop of Rome became all-powerful throughout the area of the old Roman Empire.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://adventist.org.uk/__data/assets/text_file/0011/10910/1260days.txt |title=The 1260 days of Daniel 7 |access-date=2018-12-07 |archive-date=2018-12-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203230201/http://adventist.org.uk/__data/assets/text_file/0011/10910/1260days.txt |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[Ostrogoths]] promptly [[Sack of Rome (546)|re-captured the city of Rome eight years later in 546]], and [[Siege of Rome (549–550)|again in 550]].

Seventh-day Adventists understand the 1260 years as lasting AD 538 to 1798 as the (supposed) duration of the papacy's domination over Rome.<ref>''The Great Controversy'' by Ellen White, p. 266. "[http://egwdatabase.whiteestate.org/nxt/gateway.dll/egw-comp/section00000.htm/book01953.htm/chapter01971.htm Chap. 15 – The Bible and the French Revolution]".</ref><ref>{{Cite book
|title=Seventh-day Adventists Believe (2nd ed)
|publisher=Ministerial Association, [[General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists]]
|year=2005
|isbn=1-57847-041-2
|pages=184–185
}}</ref> This period is seen as starting from one of the [[Gothic War (535–554)|defeats]] of the Ostrogoths by the general [[Belisarius]] and as ending with the successes of French general [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon Bonaparte]], specifically, with the capture of [[Pope Pius VI]] by general [[Louis Alexandre Berthier]] in 1798.

Like many [[Reformation Era|Reformation-era]] Protestant leaders, the Adventist pioneer [[Ellen G. White]] (1827–1915) spoke of the [[Catholic Church]] as a fallen church in preparation for its nefarious eschatological role as the antagonist against God's true church; she saw the pope as the Antichrist. Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther, John Knox, John Calvin, William Tyndale and others held similar beliefs about the Catholic Church and the papacy when they broke away from the Catholic Church during the Reformation.<ref name="whitehorsemedia.com">{{cite web|url= http://www.whitehorsemedia.com/articles/?d=44|title= Articles – White Horse Media|work= White Horse Media}}</ref>

Ellen White writes,
{{blockquote|His word has given warning of the impending danger; let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are, only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is piling up her lofty and massive structures in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated. Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite book
 |last= White 
 |first= Ellen G. 
 |title= The Great Controversy: Between Christ and Satan 
 |orig-year= 1888 
 |url= http://www.whiteestate.org/books/gc/gc.asp 
 |access-date= June 6, 2006 
 |year= 1999 
 |publisher= The Ellen G. White Estate 
 |isbn= 0-8163-1923-5 
 |chapter= Enmity Between Man and Satan 
 |chapter-url= http://www.whiteestate.org/books/gc/gc30.html 
 |page= 581 
 |url-status= dead 
 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070531225517/http://www.whiteestate.org/books/gc/gc.asp 
 |archive-date= May 31, 2007 
}}</ref>}}

Seventh-day Adventists view the length of time the apostate church's unbridled power was permitted to rule as shown in Daniel 7:25: "The little horn would rule a time and times and half a time" – or 1,260 years. They regard papal rule as supreme in Europe from 538 (when the Arian Ostrogoths retreated from Rome into temporary oblivion) until 1798 (when the French general [[Louis-Alexandre Berthier]] took [[Pope Pius VI]] captive){{snd}}a period of 1,260 years<ref>Paulien, John (2006) "[https://www.adventistbiblicalresearch.org/sites/default/files/pdf/1260%20Days%20in%20Revelation.pdf The 1260 Days in the Book of Revelation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151027234546/https://adventistbiblicalresearch.org/sites/default/files/pdf/1260%20Days%20in%20Revelation.pdf |date=2015-10-27 }}"</ref> – including the 67 years of the [[Avignon Captivity]] (1309–1376).