"For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. However not all people have this knowledge…” (1 Corinthians 8:5-7)
I suppose that there are as many gods and lords as there have been governments and religions over the history of the human race. Paul does not condemn to hell those who worship false gods, but simply says that they do not have the knowledge of the “one God, the Father" and the "one Lord, Jesus Christ.” But all humanity will know after the resurrection. Jesus told His followers...
“Verily, verily, I say to you — He who is hearing My word, and is believing Him who sent Me, has life during the ages, and to judgment he does not come, but will pass out of the death into life…. Wonder not at this, because there is coming an hour in which all those in the tombs shall hear His voice, and they shall come forth; those who did the good things to a rising again of life, and those who practiced the evil things to a rising again of judgment." (John 5:24-29)
Jesus was speaking about the ages that will follow the present age. Revelation 20 tells us that the next age will last for a thousand years. At the BEGINNING of that age those who did “the good things” will be raised from the dead to live during that age and will rule and reign with Christ for one thousand years. Those who practiced “evil things” in the ages will not be part of that reign. They will sleep in death to be raised and judged at the end of the thousand years. So what happens to them at that judging?
“And I saw a great white throne, and Him who is sitting upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven did flee away, and place was not found for them; and I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God… and they were judged, each one according to their works…if anyone was not found written in the scroll of the life, he was cast to the lake of the fire...this is the second death…” (Revelation 20:7-15)
Christian leaders have made the “lake of fire” equivalent to eternal torment, scaring the hell out of people who do not know any better. Yet, GOD says the “lake of fire” is the "second death". I choose to believe God.
Paul tells us what happens after the second death caused by the lake of fire…
“ THE LAST ENEMY TO BE DESTROYED IS DEATH…that God may be ALL IN ALL….Death is swallowed up in victory...” (1 Corinthians 15:26, 28, 55)
I am confident that my family and I will be among those in the “first rising” because we have a knowledge of the truth about Jesus ands do our best to do "good things", and so we do not worry about the second death in the lake of fire and look forward to living with Christ Jesus for the next thousand years.
“Happy and holy is he who is having part in the first rising; over these the second death has not authority, but they shall be priests of God and of the Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” (Revelation 20:6)
I am equally certain that if anyone experiences the second death, he or she will be made alive when death is destroyed. All humanity will then be a joint body in Christ Jesus, reconciled to God, and delivered from the penalty of sin - which is death. Jesus was the first to be saved out of death, but the rest of humanity will follow.
“And He (Jesus) is the head of the body…a first-born out of the dead, that He might become first in all things…and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself — having made peace through the blood of His cross — through Him, whether the things upon the earth, or the things in the heavens. And you — once being alienated, and enemies in the mind, in the evil works, yet now did He reconcile, in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and unblemished, and unblameable before Himself…" (Colossians 1:18-22)
Few seem to have this knowledge yet, but all will have it when God's plan for humanity is complete.