>premillennialism
I hate these "millennial" terms because it fundamentally misunderstands what the millennia in Rev is (it already happened though)

But in this case your post is exactly correct, and it isn't even a unique interpretation by me, or by "we wuz" people.

>During the Reformation, historicism was the dominant view.[7] All, or nearly all of the reformers saw the pope as Antichrist.[8] Futurism emerged after this time as a Roman Catholic response to historicism.[9] This rise of futurism is generally associated with a Jesuit priest named Francisco Ribera (1537–1591).[10] Ribera is said to have developed his scheme for the purpose of refuting historicism and its papal antichrist.[11] A scheme similar to Ribera's was put forward by Italian archbishop Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621).[10]

From Ribera's wiki page. Now I don't think the Pope is the antichrist because there is no "antichrist" as virtually everyone sees it, or at least there is not ONLY a singular antichrist, because all jews (all non-Christians in fact) are "antichrist" as John says. But Rev 13 makes it pretty clear that the revived beast is the Catholic church, and futurism is meant to dispel this belief so as to maintain the hold the RCC has on Christendom.