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The Great among these spirits the Elves name the Valar, the Powers of Arda, and Men have often called them gods.
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1) Just because Men sometimes call them gods does not mean that they are.
2) In this sentence it say "among these spirits" not gods.
FROM A LETTER BY J.R.R. TOLKIEN
TO MILTON WALDMAN, 1951
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The cycles begin with a cosmogonical myth: The Music of the Ainur. God and the Valar(or powers:Englished as gods) are revealed. These latter are as we should say angelic powers, whose function is to excercise delegated authority in their spheres (of rule and government, not creation, making or re-making). They are 'divine', that is, were originally 'outside' and existed 'before' the making of the world. Their power and wisdom is derived from their Knowledge of the cosmogonical drama, which they perceived first as a drama (that is as in a fashion we perceive a story composed by someone else), and later as a 'reality'. On the side of mere narrative device, this is , of course, meant to provide beings of the same order of beaty, power, and majesty as teh 'gods' of higher mythology, which can yet be accepted- well, shall we say baldly, by a mind that believes in the Blessed Trinity.
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In this Tolkien said God AND the Valar.
Also he said that the Valar are angelic powers(Angels).
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They must not set foot on 'immortal' lands, and so become enamoured of an immortality (within the world), which was against their law, the special doom or gift of Ilúvatar (God), and which their nature could not in fact endure.
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In this Tolkien calls Ilúvatar God. If Ilúvatar is the same as Eru, and Eru means 'The One','He That is Alone' how can the Valar be 'gods'?