If the true Church was always in the wilderness (not mainstream), persecuted by the Papacy throughout the 1260 years of the reign of the Man of Lawlessness (the Anti-Christ), then what about the Reformation Era’s famous Protestant churches? Weren’t they any good? Didn't they protest the Papacy's unbiblical heresies and come out of that system? Does the Bible have any prophecies on that particular time period in church history? If so, how were they fulfilled?

Biblical prophecies forecast a "Man of Lawlessness", an Anti-Christ. Many interpret the prophecies and expect him to be a world leader who is to rise in the future. And then there are others who theorize that person as Emperor Nero and conclude that all those prophecies got fulfilled in 70 AD. If either of those theories are true - i.e. the Anti-Christ had a quick reign in 70 AD (or) he is supposed to rise only in the far far future - then that would make the majority of church history (2000-odd years) irrelevant. That doesn't make much sense. Is that what the Bible really says?