A Proper Candidate
By 'proper candidate' is meant that the one being baptized is to be a believer or saved person. By that, we mean a person must make a confession of faith in Jesus, admitting their undone condition and show evidence of truly having turned to God for mercy and forgiveness. Whether we talk of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, when Philip said, “if you believe, you can”, or those who came to John and he said, “Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Bring forth fruit meet for repentance,” we Landmark Baptists take a firm stand on requiring a confession before baptism. Even in these days when many are accused of teaching baptism as the initial step to God, I personally know of no one who claims to be a Landmark Baptist who actually practices baptism before a confession of faith and repentance. The point is, this is very restrictive. We are saying a person coming to us for baptism will not be allowed this privilege without admitting they have settled something with Jesus first. Because there are few that will admit their lost condition and turn to Jesus, this means we will consider a very small segment of people as proper candidates for baptism.
A Proper Mode
In addition to a proper candidate, the baptism must be performed in a proper mode - complete immersion. Examples are given in the Bible of complete immersion and then we point out the meaning of the word baptizo and then the picture of it being a burial all make it very clear, beyond doubt, that dipping alone satisfies the mode question. So, a person can claim to be saved and have a desire to serve Christ, but if they insist on sprinkling or pouring, we will decline. This requirement further restricts the great privilege of serving God properly to those willing to submit, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Proper Authority
One day, John the Baptist's disciples saw Jesus baptizing and wondered if He had been given the right to do so. John, therefore, was making sure they understood that Jesus indeed had the right to administer baptism. However, the Scriptures state that Jesus did not personally do the dipping, but rather gave that duty to His disciples (church). Thus, they were immersing in Jesus' name, or in other words, by His authority (John 4:1, 2).
Before He ascended back to His Father, Jesus commissioned that same group of disciples (His ekklesia, church) to continue to administer the ordinance of baptism during His physical absence from them. But He also told them that He would be with them [through Spirit] throughout the remainder of the age until He returned.
The commission of discipling the Gentiles (the other nations in addition to Israel) was given to the Lord's New Testament churches. they were to preach salvation, baptize in Jesus' name, and then teach those disciples to observe (to practice) all the things He had taught them.