All Things New

by Pete Hughes

God is on a mission to make all things new: from the fashion industry to the business community, from politics to education and from entertainment to media and the arts. God’s burning desire is to bring restoration to every sphere of society.
 
Starting in Genesis and working through the Scriptures, All Things New will take you on a journey into the very heart of God and His relentless passion to redeem lives, heal the nations, rewire the culture, and bring renewal to all of creation.
 
As we immerse ourselves in the greatest story ever told we find our ultimate sense of belonging, our purpose in the present and our hope for the future. We become actors in this unfolding drama, pushing forward God’s purposes for the world and joining His mission to make all things new.
 

Genres: Christian, Theology

336 pages, Paperback

Published February 2, 2020

Reviews

[Misael Galdámez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as part of a discipleship course for my church. In a nutshell, it's an introduction to biblical theology with the premise that we are created to know God through our created world, and that our salvation is not a salvation out of this world, but to renew and restore the world.

I've been on a journey to re-contextualize my own faith in light of the broader Christian tradition, and spent a lot of time reading about the atonement, about how the stories we tell shape us and our desires (e.g. liturgy), about how we experience the world as communion with God. In other words, I was primed for this book's content and found myself largely agreeing with the content.

Having said that, I feel like readers without additional context or information might feel like the book moves rather quickly and might find themselves wanting additional study or context. It is A LOT of content to cover in such a short volume (and especially when you're reading it in a month for a church course). Some sections felt entirely too rushed, but not everyone has the time I did to spend studying.

My other big critique is that I feel Hughes misses the forest for the trees when talking about story. Liturgy and the sacraments (baptism, eucharist) bring us into God's story and help us re-enact it again and again. They remind us that we are moving toward something, someone in fact! The broader church celebrates Advent, Christmas, Lent, Triviidium, Easter, not only as a remembrance but a reenactment of God's story.

All that said, I would happily recommend this book to others.

[Terence Tan · Rating 2 out of 5]

To read this book is to get a seat at the Hughes' family kitchen table. The head of the home, Pete Hughes, regales you with laugh out loud stories, somber reflections and giant-sized dreams. As a bible teacher, he lands each story on a point he wants to make.

The big idea of the book is Christians need to pay attention to Creation and New Creation and living in the light of these truths. And so he argues Christians are agents of renewal, tasked to expand the Kingdom of God in all sectors of society.

In this book, he lists so many other ideas like Solomon is an oppressive slave master and Jesus is a revolutionary that are not well substantiated. Even what one would consider be a core theme, "How does one be an agent of Re-Creation", is simply asserted by the author rather than expounded from the Bible. This is not for lack of ability for he does a good job in putting forward the case for the grand narrative of Re-Creation and rethinking Hell as in Annihilationism. In these cases, pulling out Bible passage after Bible passage and addressing possible counter-arguments.

The book has many things going for it (good writing voice, great stories, provocative questions) but the main idea of inviting Christians to join the work of Re-Creation is poorly presented and other peripheral ideas threaten to derail the main thesis of the book.

Full review at: https://readingandreaders.com/podcast...

[Ava Zoschke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. It challenged me a lot, but also provided so much encouragement. Takeaways below:

•ch.17!! The importance of community!! Acknowledging the disappointments in life — faith is not immunity from suffering — and allowing pain to be transformed, not transmitted.

•The Cross — I feel like the significance of the cross clicked with this book. Yes we are forgiven of our sins, AND the cross allows restoration so we don’t have to continue living in shame. How awesome???

•Eternity — I had ideas about what heaven & hell are like, but this provided a lot of clarity around that. Sin leads to death, and hell is a place where humans cease to exist and is NOT a place of endless punishment. Essentially we have a choice as humans for heaven or ceasing to exist (eg sin). Heaven is also something that we aren’t totally able to imagine, and we have an inward longing for heaven, which is revealed through the Spirit. HOW AWESOME & ENCOURAGING IS THIS!!

[Trevor Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book! Love it! Very accessible but not over-simplified overview of the Bible's big story, drawing from some of the best recent insights in biblical theology from guys like Tom Wright. Great biblical and theological underpinning of charismatic spirituality, spiritual formation, the importance of the local church, healthy evangelism, culture making and revival (not so convinced on this last one). It was also good to read a defence of annihilationist position in the charismatic-evangelical mainstream. Liked it so much I am using it for our church's reading club over the next few months.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5 / 5]

A great introduction to the concept of Biblical Theology.

Hughes, through the connecting theme of God's restoration of all creation to make 'All Things New', outlines the entire Biblical narrative, returning back at every moment to the concepts of Creation, De-Creation and Re-Creation.

He manages to fit in an impressive amount of topics into book, each one interacting with contemporary scholarship and summarising often complex ideas into easily digestible nuggets of wisdom.

My one complaint would be that in many areas, he only scratches the surface of what these topics offer, but that is to be expected in a work of this size.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as part of the Big Church Read group and found the availability of summary videos from Pete Hughes very helpful. Discussion questions were also provided for the groups but our group never managed to answer all of them! However we were never short of discussion points! The book was an interesting overview of creation-decreation-recreation, thus ultimately making all things new. It challenged preconceived and long held ideas and provided food for thought. Well worth a read.

[Suzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book and it’s accessible, highly readable approach to the Bible narrative. Hughes uses some very helpful diagrams and analogies to explain his argument and at no point did I feel the need to Google or look up his points for further clarification. Loved the interspersed personal stories too. A really good book, one I will be recommending and returning to.

[Gareth Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful invitation into an epic story!

Pete Hughes, thank you for taking hold of our hands and leading us on this journey with such vulnerability, sensitivity and enthusiasm. It has been such an inspiring read. We simply can’t remain the same.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read, but not great. I only picked it up because it was part of my church’s discipleship course. Much of this book wasn’t new material to me, but a few chapters were revelatory and worth reading, so it’s hard to rate.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The depth of this book and the depth of challenge for the church is so good. Knowing the family I can say that Pete has such humility that makes this book even more impactful. The story of KXC is such a positive one and testimony to a church that allows God to lead and provide.

[Rob Stevenette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional read. It's given me fresh hope and vision for how I live in the story of God

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good look at the scriptural overview of the cycle of eternity and our current place in it.

[Wesley Ekström Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, what an inspiration. Pete writes from his own experiency in life and ministry with such a warmth and grace whilst presenting the gospel of Jesus in a very fresh and compelling way.

[Maddy Haywood · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's was good, not great. Some of the stories shared were interesting and a couple of the chapters really worth reading, but I felt it was longer than it needed to be.

[Gill Albany-Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this quite hard to read. I'll leave you to make your own minds up.

[Chris]

Not in library

[Kristofer Strid · Rating 5 out of 5]

En fantastisk bibelteologi med ett missionellt och ecklesiologiskt ramverk och samtidigt lättillgängligt!

[Rebecca Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of the whole Biblical story, with emphasis on God eventually restoring all things (as the title suggests!)

Much of it was broadly familiar to me - but definitely challenging/ thoughtful in places too. 4 stars ⭐

[Cassia Sherrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly so good and really sets a fire in your soul to be a more active participant in God’s story!

[Salome Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very very good - parts of it are repetitive but the theology behind it is strong and allows shares unique perspectives I’ve never read elsewhere. Would recommend!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Disagreed with just a couple of things, but nothing major. Would highly recommend it.

[Cassie Eden · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last few chapter of this book transformed some of the most fundamental parts of my faith and I already know I’m going to be referencing this book in my testimony for years to come 🤘

[Arthur Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book, but the stories contained of God’s love for people brought me to tears so many times!
The God Pete invites the reader to know through these pages is relentlessly in love with his creation and time and time again, this relentless love goes far beyond anything that humans can understand but points to a reality that awaits those who live for a different kingdom!

[Agustina Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Christian book I’ve ever read! Beautifully summarizes the whole biblical story and his humor is unparalleled.