Wow...a lot has happened since I last checked.
I will be plain and straight forward here. Here is what I believe.
In the beginning, before the creation of anything, God chose the elect, those to be saved in the future. (Ephesians 1:4, Romans 8:29) He then made many covenants and etc with the Hebrew people. He also gave the Hebrews the levitical system, with 3 roles, the priest, the king and the prophet. (scripture is scattered throughout Leviticus and Deuteronomy.) The role of king is to rule the people of God. The role of the priest is to intervene for the people of God and also speak to God through the people, not to mention the ceremonial purification of sins. The role of the prophet is to speak to the people for God. Now, the most confusing and complicated role is the role of a priest. The author in Hebrews wrote chapter after chapter to validate Jesus' priesthood. The priest was to ceremonially clean the people through sacrifices. (Hebrews 10, beginning and also leviticus and deutoronomy but I dont' want to go look in there for verses right now). Now how was Jesus a priest, since he isn't in the line of the Levite? Because Jesus was a priest in the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7). Therefore, Jesus fulfills or will fulfill all of the requirements to be messiah so therefore he is. (Paul also talks of this in Romans 1)
Now, why did the priests have to sacrifice in the tabernacle? Because in the Old testament, I make the supposition that the Holy Spirit was at work in many people, but it is unable to endwell the believers. (King david "Do not take thy holy spirit from me"). The reason that the spirit is able to endwell us is because we are ceremonially clean, and if we aren't clean, then it was unable to endwell us since in his holiness, he can't stand unholiness. (The hatred of unholiness from God is apparent all over scripture) Now what is different between now and then? Well, Jesus dies on the cross and cleans all of our sins, so now, the Holy Spirit is able to endwell us. (Acts 1:8, Luke where Jesus says it is profitable that I go away so the father may send an eternal helper...)
Now how does this relate to salvation? Well, God chose who he will save at the beginning of time, so therefore the names of those who will be saved are set. You are unable to lose your salvation, nor are you able to gain your salvation. Now how do I get around verses like Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10? Well, I say that he will reward us after we die. (1st Cor 3:13) Now I believe that the author of Hebrews is addressing our reward instead of our salvation. Be careful with this though, because I don't believe all scripture does the same, like for example, when Jesus talks about the guy falling off the rock in John I believe, I think he means the one that believes and falls away and was never elect.
What will the rewards be? Well, scripture doesnt' give us a clear and concise defination but it does something about crowns. (there's a lot, but only verse I remember is 2 Tim 4:7, around that verse). You see, in Hebrews, he's speaking to the saints, but he's also saying well, if you were saved, and you apostate, well, you'll be in pretty bad shape later because you just lost pretty much all your rewards.
Now speaking of assurance. Well, you see, it is stated in scripture that only the spirit can allow you to bare fruit. (Just cause i'm doing this in QT, Mark, when Jesus says "let all those who have ears come and listen", well, in revelations 3:6 I believe, Jesus says "let all those who have ears come and listen to what the spirit says to the churches." Well, I am supposing that he means the spirit when he says that in Mark and right before, he was talking about fruit, there are other examples that say that, but this one came to mind first.) Well, if you are only able to bare fruit if you have the spirit, and you can only have the spirit if your saved, so... =D what would be our assurance then? Our assurance is that if we are bareing fruit, then we must be saved. Now in 2nd Peter, he lists things that possibly deemed as fruit, if you do it in faith, verse 5. How are we able to have faith in the church age? Through the holy spirit! =D Now this is where it gets tricky, kind of. Because we have to do these things in faith to have assurance, Peter says do these things and you will have assurance, but if you fall away later, then you will lose your assurance. You see, you are able to have your assurance and not be elect and also you are able to not have your assurance and still be saved. Its like a chemical PH indicator in a time based reaction. It can be blue one day and red the other and it can change back. Peter says that as long as you keep doing those things and they are increasing in you, you are making more sure that you were elected because this is the characteristics of the elect.
So this is what I believe. God elects, he calls us, we believe, our sins are wiped clean, we recieve the spirit, we are sanctified, and we bare fruit, which in turn at the day of judgement, christ rewards us for our fruit. =D That is my breakdown of salvation. I didn't have my bible on hand so I'm really sorry for the handwaving on some verses. Now I have actually circumvented most of the controversy. The real controversy begins when we talk about do we need faith to be saved?(I can state one case in the bible where someone wasn't saved because of faith) What does our faith do? What does the holy spirit do in us? Can we ever reject the holy spirit? Can we reject God's call for us?(think of Judas) Also, when you talk about the regenerate spirit, when does regeneration begin? Do you have to be regenerate to recieve the spirit and etc. I won't address those issues, since they have been the crux of the calvinist/armenian debate and are no easy matters to address. I do believe that Paul lays out our salvation in Romans. He also kind of summarizes in Ephesians 1, but a deep understanding of romans is required! =D