When does salvation come?

Salvation comes at what point?

Repeating a prayer? Baptism? Repentance? Works of righteousness?

Repeating a prayer?
When I was much younger I repeated a prayer and the preacher said I was saved because I prayed the prayer. I believe I was saved even before I prayed the prayer. I believed Jesus had saved me or I wouldn't have wanted to pray in the first place. Some people repeat a prayer because they are intimidated into it. Does that make them saved? Nope. It is about believing in Jesus.

Baptism?
Does Baptism make you saved? Nope. It is a declaration to the world that you have believed in Jesus Christ. It is like a wedding ceremony is to marriage. Do you need a ceremony to be married? No. You can get married by going before a judge and signing some papers or you can stand before family and friends at your local church and recite wedding vows. The wedding ceremony is held to declare your commitment to your spouse before all of those people who are important to you. Baptism is the same sort of thing. You are declaring to the world that you have given your heart to Jesus. Baptism is symbolic of you sharing in Jesus' death, burial and resurrection from the dead. You get baptised because you are saved not in order to be saved.

Repentance?
The word repentance usually causes people to think of great sorrow. I was taught that repentance is feeling really, really, really sorry about the horrible things I have done. Repentance means literally to change direction. Christian repentance is about correcting your course. If you are selfish then repentance means to choose to be unselfish. If you are hateful then start being loving. If you are ignoring God then stop and begin to spend time with Him. Repentance is also a product of believing.

Works of righteousness?
When you believe in Jesus then you have decided that he knows more than you do and He knows how we should do things. He says to obey him. We do that by reading his teachings from the bible and then doing what we read there. As Christians we do good things for two reasons. First, because he commands us to feed the hungry, help those who cannot help themselves, etc. Secondly, when we believe in Him, He begins a work in us that transforms our character into His character. He is love. Love wants to help others. But it all starts by believing.
According to Romans salvation is about believing in Jesus and confessing that belief. How then do we confess that belief? I think that it is best done by our actions rather than only by our mouths.

When people do good things it may be that they simply are caring people who want to help others. Is that a sign of salvation? Not by itself.

I believe that you can be saved by hearing the gospel message and believing it.
No words are necessary. Making a trip down the aisle of a church isn't necessary. It is about believing. The reason I say that no words are necessary is that I know that what you believe always comes out of your mouth. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Sooner or later you are going to talk about it (Confess it).

I also know that what you believe is obvious by what you do. You can say I believe in Jesus all day long but if you don't do something different (such as love somebody) as a result of that belief then I don't buy it. It doesn't resonate as true. Actions do speak louder than words.

Be blessed.