Since the Antichrist is in the future, it could not be the Papacy. Summary of the Fallacies of Futurism . Futurism is designed to relieve pressure on Rome. Futurism violates the principle of consistent prophetic symbolism. Futurism makes prophetic time meaningless.
Futurism removes application from historical verification.
Futurism creates an arbitrary gap which is an unjustifiable device. Futurism ignores the view of the early church. Futurism cannot be correct if Preterism is correct. Preterism Preterists are committed to the view that the majority of the prophecies of the book of Daniel have already been fulfilled and therefore no significance for the present day. It was developed to take the heat off the Pope, who was feeling some discomfort from the Reformers' talk that the Papacy was the Antichrist.