How pagan was the ancient Gentile world?
The ancient Gentile world was thoroughly pagan. Scripture describes Gentiles as strangers from the covenants, without God in the world. Apart from God's calling of Abram and Israel, no people had knowledge of the one true God. The then-known world was steeped in paganism, evidenced by temples to gods and goddesses throughout ancient Greece, Ephesus, and Corinth.
Les teaches that Gentiles were outside the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no part in those promises and being without God in the world. That is why, he explains, they were all pagan. He notes there was not a single person who had a knowledge of the one true God except when God called Abram and began forming Israel as the only people on earth who would have that knowledge. Les adds that the whole then-known world was steeped in paganism, as seen in the ancient cities of Greece, Ephesus, and Corinth, where temples to gods and goddesses stood on every hand, including the Acropolis and the Parthenon.