Jack Van Impe

Jack Van Impe
Born Jack Leo Van Impe
(1931-02-09) February 9, 1931
Freeport, Michigan, U.S.
Education Detroit Bible Institute
Occupation Televangelist, Author, Apocalyptic Bible Prophet, Biblical Scholar, TV show host, Television Personality
Known for Founder of Jack Van Impe Ministries International (JVIM)
Host of the Jack Van Impe Presents syndicated TV program
Title Dr. Jack Van Impe
Spouse(s)
Dr. Rexella Mae Shelton (m. 1954)
Website https://www.jvim.com

Jack Leo Van Impe (born February 9, 1931)[1][2] is an American televangelist who is known for his half-hour weekly television series Jack Van Impe Presents, an eschatological commentary on the news of the week through an interpretation of the Bible. The program airs around the world through both religious broadcasters and the purchase of paid programming time on commercial television stations. He is known as the "Walking Bible", having memorized many scriptures.[3] His wife, Rexella, shares his TV ministry as co-host.

Early life and marriage

Van Impe's parents, Oscar Alphonse Van Impe and Marie Louise, née Piot, immigrated from Belgium to the city of Troy, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, in the United States in 1929. Jack Leo Van Impe was born on February 9, 1931, in Freeport, Michigan.[4] He was the couple's only child. The reason why Van Impe had decided to become an evangelist was because his father was a missionary with very strong faith.

According to Van Impe, he and his father Oscar played the accordion at night clubs, and Oscar regularly swore and drank alcohol, and believed that religion was hogwash. At meals, Van Impe would drink alcoholic beverages along with his father which is a European tradition. Then when Van Impe was twelve years old, Oscar converted to evangelical Christianity, and Oscar and Jack Van Impe together smashed all of their bottles of alcoholic beverages, and since that event Van Impe has not drunk any alcohol.

Van Impe then played accordion duets with his missionary father across Michigan and other states. In 1948, Van Impe graduated from high school and entered Detroit Bible Institute, earning his diploma in 1952 and beginning his career as a preacher and evangelist as well as an extensive recording career.

While working with the Billy Graham crusades, when he was at a Youth For Christ rally with Chuck Ohman (a friend of Jack's who was a trumpeter for Percy Crawford's "Youth on the March" television broadcasts[5]), Van Impe met his future wife, Rexella Mae Shelton, who was an organist with the crusades. Rexella was born in Missouri on November 29, 1932,[6] and was named after her father, Rex Shelton. The couple were married on August 21, 1954, and started their own joint ministry, Jack Van Impe Ministries.

Records

Since the 1950s, Van Impe has released dozens of Gospel and spoken word recordings. His first album Presenting the Van Impes features Van Impe on the accordion as well as Rexella's organ playing. Subsequent musical recordings featured the accorgan, a type of electronic accordion.

Biblical prophecy beliefs

Van Impe believes in one particular interpretation of a literal meaning of the Bible (King James Version) that states, according to Revelation 13, that a single world political leader (The Beast) and a single world religious leader (the False Prophet) will emerge, but The Rapture will happen before either leader comes to power. He believes that the Bible teaches that the world will be organized into ten political subdivisions, based on the ten-district plan set up by the Club of Rome,[7] and that this ten-division world empire will be jointly ruled by the European Union and the Islamic world, which he believes are represented by the two iron legs of the prophetic dream statue in the Book of Daniel. Van Impe believes in the Prophecy of the Popes, and that according to said prophecy, Pope Francis is Peter the Roman, the predicted pope who will preside during Armageddon.

Van Impe preaches a Pre-Tribulation Rapture of 'The Body of Christ'.

Van Impe also believes a one-world religion will form, named "Chrislam"; the joining of the world's two largest religions (Christianity and Islam). He believes that the Bible states that the world political leader will "come in peaceably" (per Daniel 11:21) and create a seven-year peace deal involving Israel (per Daniel 9:27). Then, three and a half years into the peace, Russia (the interpreted meaning of 'Rosh' from Ezekiel 38:2 and 39:1; Van Impe also identifies Meshech and Tubal from the same passages as Moscow and Tobolsk respectively), along with its Middle Eastern allies ('Persia, Cush, and Put', from Ezekiel 38:5), will break the peace by invading Israel, according to Ezekiel 38, and the military of Russia and its allies will be decimated by nuclear warfare and pushed back to Siberia. Then China (the interpreted meaning of 'kings from the east' from Revelation 16:12) will invade, and the military of China will likewise be decimated when Jesus returns.

Jack Van Impe Presents

Jack Van Impe Presents is a weekly telecast currently produced by Van Impe's non-profit organization at the Jack Van Impe Ministries World Outreach Center, in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Van Impe's wife, Rexella, cohosts.

On a typical show, Rexella begins by reading recent news headlines. Van Impe then applies his memorization of Bible verses to interpret the news stories, generally in an attempt to show that it is another manifestation of biblically-predicted signs of the end of the age.

In explaining how careful he is with money donated to his ministry, Jack says he has worn the same suit coat for many years but admitted he does get a new necktie for each program to match the colors of Rexella's constantly changing wardrobe.

Twice during the broadcast, once in the middle of the broadcast and once at the end, announcer Chuck Ohman describes a DVD that is being sold by the ministry, and how to order. (Rexella announced Ohman's wife's death on the 12 March 2016 broadcast.) Near the end of the broadcast, Jack looks at the camera and makes a personal prayer to Jesus, and he asks the viewers to make the prayer with him. On the Christmas and Easter broadcasts, a video of Rexella singing a song in her younger years is aired.

Recurring topics include a New World Order consisting of one world government and one world religion, prophecies of future wars and the second coming of Jesus, modern "Chrislam", differences between the biblical Jesus and the Jesus of Islam, the proposed United Nations blasphemy law and Islamic extremism, the removal of crosses from churches, the importance of doctrine, and criticism of such individuals as Pope Francis, Barack Obama, Rick Warren, Robert Schuller, Joel Osteen, and Oprah Winfrey. Jack also cites numerous Bible verses, with emphasis on various select verses that are his favorites. Van Impe uses the King James version of the Bible.

In 2017 Jack began referring to himself as a prophet and holy man, with a particular commission from the Holy Spirit to announce the return of Jesus Christ, a commission Jack attributed to his extensive memorization of Bible texts cited with chapter and verse. However, in the 30 June 2018 video, Jack admitted that "The verses have all come back but sometimes the numbers are a little difficult" since his coma. In the 6 October 2018 video, Jack stated that his wife Rexella was also chosen with him by the Holy Spirit to reach the 7.6 Billion people on earth.

Health problems and interruption of broadcast

In one episode of Jack Van Impe Presents which aired in the week of June 19, 2006, Van Impe disclosed that he had undergone two total knee replacements in early 2006. He gave thanks to God for his recovery and for leading him to the "wonderful surgeon" who did the operation. Subsequent to the problems with his knees, Van Impe has suffered from cancer, a severe sepsis attack, and blood loss resulting from holes burned through his stomach by his NSAID arthritis medication. On the program which aired the week of May 31, 2015, Van Impe was not present for the program, and Rexella reported that he was recovering from a serious surgery (triple by-pass) in the hospital. Carl Baugh co-hosted the program. Van Impe compared his colitis to the flood in the account of Noah's Ark.

Van Impe returned to his weekly show on October 3, 2015, following successful rehabilitation from his triple by-pass heart surgery.

On January 7, 2017, Rexella Van Impe announced that Jack Van Impe had broken his hip but was recovering. Carl Baugh co-hosted that program as well.[8] In Jack's absence, Rexella Van Impe co-hosted the program with various guests: Carl Baugh for six episodes, Dave Williams for six episodes, Dr. Robert Jeffress for two episodes, and Walt Sheppard for three episodes. In April–May, 2017, re-runs were aired until the May 27, 2017, broadcast when Jack Van Impe reappeared beside Rexella, and the couple announced that, under doctor's advice, they were ending the TV broadcast. Thereafter, weekly videos were posted on the organization's website. However, Jack later claimed the reason they stopped TV broadcasts was because he had lost 50,000 donors during his absence due to illness, although he claimed he lost 60,000 in his October 13, 2018, video. In a message about bearing false witness, Jack claimed he only had enough funds to pay for 8 to 10 months of radio and TV broadcasts, although he announced contracts with every radio and TV station in every nation on earth for 3 years of broadcasting. In 2018, radio and television broadcasts resumed, with Chuck Ohman announcing.[9]

Criticisms

In 2001, Jack and Rexella Van Impe won the parodic Ig Nobel Prize in Astrophysics "for their discovery that black holes fulfill all the technical requirements to be the location of Hell."[10]

Conflict with TBN

In June 2011, Trinity Broadcasting Network refused to air an episode of "Jack Van Impe Presents" which criticized Robert Schuller and Rick Warren for promoting "Chrislam." In response, Van Impe ceased airing his show on TBN.[11][12]

References

  1. ↑ Jack Van Impe on IMDb
  2. ↑ Religious Leaders of America, 2nd ed., Gale Group, 1999
  3. ↑ Otto, Mary (May 16, 1997). "At the cusp of two millennia, more people believe the Book of Revelation's code will be cracked soon". Knight Ridder. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  4. ↑ Campbell, Roger F. (1977). They call him The Walking Bible. Nashville: Action Press. p. 19. ISBN 0840790007.
  5. ↑ Douglas Yeo. "An Interview with Bill Pearce". Online Trombone Journal. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
  6. ↑ "Jack Van Impe Presents", 12 May 2012
  7. ↑ Announced in "Regionalized and Adaptive Model of the Global World System," as part of the Strategy for Survival Project. This revealed the Club's goal of dividing the world into ten political/economic regions which would unite the entire world under a single form of government. These regions are: North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Rest of Developed World, Latin America, Middle East, Rest of Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and China. The same plan was published in a Club of Rome book called Mankind at the Turning Point: Club of Rome Report, REGIONALIZED AND ADAPTIVE MODEL OF THE GLOBAL WORLD SYSTEM, Report on the Progress in the STRATEGY FOR SURVIVAL PROJECT of the Club of Rome, Mihajlo Mesarovic and Eduard Pestel, Directors, "C O N F I D E N T I A L," September 17, 1973.
  8. ↑ "Jack Van Impe Presents", 7 January 2017
  9. ↑ "Jack Van Impe Returns to WATC on September 3", WATC-DT (retrieved September 10, 2018).
  10. ↑ "The 2001 Ig Nobel Prize Winners". improbable.com. Retrieved January 1, 2013.
  11. ↑ "Van Impe ministry abandons TBN in clash over Islam". WND.
  12. ↑ Banks, Adelle M. "Jack Van Impe Leaves TBN After Criticism Of Rick Warren, Robert Schuller." Huffington Post. June. 2011. 4 September 2017. http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/880741
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