Were all of Paul's Gentile converts pagan idolaters before he brought them the gospel?
Yes. It is taught that every Gentile convert Paul brought out of darkness into the light of the gospel was a pagan idolater—every one of them, every place he went. They had been steeped in idolatry and the pagan practices rampant in the ancient world.
Les teaches that every Gentile convert Paul brought out of the darkness into the light of the gospel was a pagan idolater, every one of them and every place he went. Les explains that when Paul writes to these believers, he is writing to Gentile men and women who had been steeped in idolatry and in all the idolatrous and pagan practices that were rampant in the ancient world. He points to 1 Thessalonians, saying verse 9 and then verse 10 say it all. Les also notes that people today think they live in a whole new world or social strata, but we are living in the same old sin that has plagued the world since the beginning, and idolatry and paganism promoted it even more than many things in our society.
For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;