Does 2 Thessalonians 2:11 teach that the Gentiles who are not taken at the rapture are sent a powerful delusion, and that only the Jews can be saved during the seven years after the rapture?

This text is from a transcript of a question-and-answer session with David Gooding.

I cannot myself see that 2 Thessalonians 2:11 teaches that, at the Lord's coming, all Gentiles who have not trusted Christ by that time will be sent a strong delusion.

We must be careful when we talk about such solemn things, and to hold to what Scripture actually says. What 2 Thessalonians 2:11 says is as follows: 'For this cause, God sends them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie'. What cause? Because the Lord Jesus has come? No, it does not say that is the reason. The reason is this: 'because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie'.

As I understand the principles of God's word, that implies that these people here described must have known the truth and, knowing the truth, they have deliberately refused to believe it—and in fact had pleasure in spurning it and doing unrighteousness. It is because they knew the truth and would not have it, that God sends them a strong delusion so that they believe this particular lie.

Now, how could Paul justly describe someone as 'knowing the truth'? Let me quote you what Paul said after he got converted. Talking of his unconverted days, he tells us how bad they were, how he persecuted the church; and thus he says, 'I obtained mercy, because I did it in ignorance' (1 Timothy 1:13).

Just ponder that a moment. Here was Paul, hounding Christians to their death. If you had said to Saul of Tarsus, 'What on earth are you doing?', he would have said, 'I am persecuting Nazarenes'. 'Why are you persecuting Nazarenes?' 'I don\'t believe what they preach.' So, you say, he must have known the gospel.

Well, in one sense he knew it. In another sense, he was ignorant. Hear what he says: 'I obtained mercy because I did it in ignorance'. Unilluminated by God\'s Spirit, in the sense of Hebrews 10, he was counted ignorant, and therefore there was mercy for him still.

I take it that 2 Thessalonians 2:11 is not talking about all the Gentiles, but only those people who had known the truth. Unlike Saul of Tarsus, who opposed the gospel in ignorance, they, having known the truth, had been illuminated by God's Spirit; and refusing it, they reap God's judgment upon them—he sends them a strong delusion. I cannot see, therefore, that no Gentiles will be saved in this period.