The following is based on my understanding of Christian doctrine. I am basing my eternal hope on it.
1. "...man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people... (Hebrews 9:27-28, excerpted)
We are all* going to die. What we have done with Christ in life will determine our eternal destiny.
++ It will not matter how we died, whether we were murdered, or had cancer, or lived to 107 and just didn't wake up from the afternoon nap.
++ It will not matter if we accepted Christ's salvation in youth, or age, or on death row.
++ What we did in life will not matter-- if we accept salvation. It may be an indicator, when examining the lives of others, whether it is likely that an individual accepted Christ. We are not competent to draw definite conclusions on the subject with regard to anyone, though a fair degree of certainty
++ Accepting Christ carries with it repentance of sin and the resolve, with God's help, to turn away from sin. Such help is always given to those who truly seek it. It does not make the person perfect; as a dieter will have a piece of cake, so a saved person will have a flash of anger, a moment of lust, a dishonest word, or worse. It is more likely for the committed Christian to be visibly punished in life for sin, because he is saved in eternity, and because the person in sinning has brought disrepute upon the Name of Jesus. (You have thought less of Christians because you knew of one who sinned, haven't you? And have the most public of those-- Swaggart, the Bakkers etc.-- not been publicly shamed and their carefully constructed empires, which served to glorify themselves rather than the Lord, brought to ruin?)
++ Human justice is all about this mortal life. Perfect justice is all about eternity, to which mortal life is a brief, transient prologue. The entire focus of the universe, its whole raison d'etre, is the Glory of God. Those who deny God suffermost-- if not here, then hereafter.
++ The moment of belief or repentance is not momentary; the change takes a moment, but lasts a lifetime (however brief the remaining life may be).
++ There is no such thing as a sincere moment of disbelief that condemns. We are born condemned**, and we either believe at some point during life, or not.
2. Baptism. While there are some, indeed whole denominations, that hold to "baptismal regeneration" (the salvific power of the act of being baptized), I'm not one.
++ The baptism of John was a Jewish rite, symbolizing repentance form sin. In one of the accounts, John, knowing Who he was dealing with, said (paraphrasing), "Lord, You don't need to be baptized by me; rather, it is I who need it from You." Jesus insisted, prefiguring the day when He would take all the sin of the world upon himself.
++ We are commanded to be baptized as a testimony of our salvation. It is a simple, easy act of obedience, and symbolizes out desire to obey the Lord in all things from then on.
++ A person who is unbaptizable for any reason is no less saved as a result.
Hope that helps. I'm always looking into CC, so if you want to discuss further...here I am, more or less.
* Various end-time theologies exist, but I think all of them add up to the fact that the last generation alive on earth will not necessarily die before entering eternity.
**Most of us believe that God in His mercy does not hold infants or mental defectives who cannot comprehend sin accountable for it.
