Historicism relates the timing of the current church age through the day/year theory. The day/year theory takes numbers such as the 2,300 days (Daniel 8:14) and 1,290 days (Daniel 12:11) and declares them to be years. They also relate the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments to major historical events that have occurred throughout the past 2,000 years. For example, the fifth seal in Revelation 6 may be identified as the martyrdom under Roman Emperor Diocletian (A.D. 284-304). The Pope is commonly looked at as being the Antichrist. Historicism is the view held by the Mormons, the Seventh-day Adventists, and the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Historicism in Christian eschatology is a school of interpretation of the eschatological prophecies of Daniel, Revelation and other passages are seen as finding literal earthly fulfillment through the history of the church age, and especially in relation to the Protestant- Catholic conflicts of the Reformation. A distinct feature of Historicism, which makes it very controversial, is the identification of the Antichrist (1 and 2 John), the Beast (Revelation 13), the Man of sin or Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2) and the Whore of Babylon (Revelation chapter 17) with the Roman Catholic Church, the Papal system and each successive Pope himself (a common position held by protestants in the reformation, which is not prevalent today). The day-year principle, which is unique to historicism, is used to make this assertion.