"All The Stones In Stonyford" | by Lance B. Latham

Do people have to turn from their sins in order to be saved? This is what some people teach, but the Bible says that "by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified" (Rom. 3:20). The following true story illustrates this truth and is excerpted from the book The Two Gospels, by Lance B. Latham.¹

"All The Stones In Stonyford"

"The message of the gospel of the grace of God, over the years, has stood the test. When one considers a given message or ministry, he has the right to ascertain if it has produced results. One of the great delights of my life is to witness the life-changing power of the message of the gospel of the grace of God and the results that it has produced over the years.

For the past 40 years, I have had the privilege of being associated with the New Tribes Mission. This association began at their very inception, and has continued blessedly down through more than four exciting decades. The very first committee held its first meeting at our Camp Mishawana in Michigan. New Tribes Mission today has over 2000 missionaries in the field and in the homeland who are true to the gospel of grace.

Very shortly after the founding of the mission, a camp for training missionaries was founded at Fouts Springs near Stonyford, California.

Three brothers came with different backgrounds and seemed disturbed by our teaching. They believed in the shed blood of the Son of God as God's payment for sin and that Jesus was truly God's son and God. However, they believed that they had to deny themselves to be sure of their salvation.

We all worked physically on the grounds a few hours everyday. A real job had been undertaken by the mission at our 'boot camp' in Fouts Springs. There were about 300 people on the grounds and among them many children. The necessity of a school became very evident. Preparing the ground, a mass of stones, sand and clay, involved removing many rocks of all sizes.

One brother saw the truth of Scripture in that task. 'Doc, to move all the sins out of our lives before we get saved would be harder than getting all the stones out of Stonyford!' Many people try to do things that are absolutely impossible. We could confess and remove sins to the day of our death, yet never reach a standard of perfection that a Holy God could accept.

The burden of the brothers' conviction that they must add something to Calvary as the payment of sin was gone. The penances, the self-castigation, the fastings to ease their consciences disappeared. Instead, they became intensely interested in their Bibles, and spent hours and hours delighting themselves in the Word of God.

They became missionaries to Japan, rather they became citizens of Japan. They took no furloughs, so as the years went by their support began to diminish.

The Lord eventually opened up the opportunity for them to start a Japanese-English School, and an orphanage. The revenue became enough to take care of all their needs.

Now they send missionaries to other countries. A great work, started from observing the similarity of eliminating all the stones from a stream and trying to get all the sins out of a life. 'Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified' (Rom. 3:20)."²

 

References:

¹ Lance B. Latham, The Two Gospels (Rolling Meadows, IL: Awana Youth Association, 1984).

² Ibid., pp. 62-64, emphasis his. See under the heading: "All The Stones In Stonyford".