8:5 that are called gods. The Gentile Christians to whom Paul was writing had, before their conversion, worshiped many “gods” in heaven and “lords” on earth. These were really personified forces of nature in their description, but the whole system was actually energized by demonic spirits. It was difficult for new Christians to free their minds from the power these demonic spirits had exerted over them, it is just as difficult today for new Christians to free their thinking of the similar evolutionary presuppositions with which they had been indoctrinated.

8:6 all things. In contrast to both the evolutionary pantheism of the ancient pagans and the evolutionary atheism of modern intellectuals, the testimony of both Scripture and all true science is that there is only one true God of creation, who created all things, including ourselves, by His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, all idols—whether wooden representations of the forces of nature and the evil spirits that influence them, or the philosophical constructs of modern humanists—are in reality “nothing in the world” (I Corinthians 8:4).