Literary Discussions

Let us imagine the hypothetical scenario of a simple peasant (think of The Way of the Pilgrim) except our peasant will be illiterate. Our peasant has looked at icons and heard people talk about Jesus. Our peasant becomes very fond of his/her concept of Jesus (even though perhaps their idea of Jesus is very far from any "orthodox" understand)... Our peasant decides to spend their life helping the sick and the hungry and decides to remain celibate, and they are endowed by a purity of heart such that they do not even hanker after unseemly things in their imagination...  and they continue in this life for 80 years and die. Question 1) are they saved. Well the judgment of God is a mystery to man so we cannot know if anyone is saved because that is the purpose of a resurrection and judgment. SO next question: IF it should happen that they are saved at the judgment then will they be saved by their FAITH? But they were simple and illiterate and perhaps had notions which are quite strange if not incorrect. Were they saved by their WORKS and way of life? People labored in the vineyard, some from the first hour and others only at the final hour and all received their penny for their labor. Or is it the case that our peasant was gifted with a saintly nature, foreknown and foreordained before conception as, was it Jeremiah, "before you were conceived I foreknew you and while you were in the womb I sanctified you."   David, I respectfully take exception to your use of the word SIMPLE. I say that if anything were simple, then the entire world would agree upon at least one thing of significance, but to my knowledge the world has yet to arrive as such an agreement.