Jack Van Impe
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Jack Leo Van Impe ( ; February 9, 1931 – January 18, 2020) was an American
televangelist Televangelism ( tele- "distance" and "evangelism," meaning " ministry," sometimes called teleministry) is the use of media, specifically radio and television, to communicate Christianity. Televangelists are ministers, whether official or self-pr ...
known for his half-hour weekly
television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
''Jack Van Impe Presents'', an
eschatological Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that nega ...
commentary on the news of the week through an interpretation of the
Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...
. The program airs around the world through both religious broadcasters and the purchase of
paid programming Paid or PAID may refer to: * ''Paid'' (1930 film), an American film starring Joan Crawford * ''Paid'' (2006 film), a Dutch film *''Personality and Individual Differences'', a journal See also * Paide Paide is a town in Estonia and the ...
time on commercial
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...
s. He was known as the "Walking Bible", having memorized most of the
King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...
of the Bible. His wife, Rexella, shared his television ministry as co-host.


Early life and marriage

Van Impe's parents, Oscar Alphonse Van Impe and Marie Louise, née Piot, immigrated from
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
to the city of
Troy, Michigan Troy is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, United States. Its population was 87,294 at the 2020 U.S. census, making Troy the most populous city in the county and the 13th most-populous municipality in the state. Troy is a northern suburb of Me ...
, a suburb of
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
, in the United States in 1929. Jack Leo Van Impe was born on February 9, 1931, in Freeport, Michigan. He was the couple's only child. Van Impe decided to become an evangelist after he saw his father become 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 together smashed all of their bottles of alcoholic beverages. Since that event, Van Impe did not consume any alcohol. Jack Van Impe played accordion duets with his
missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
father across Michigan and other states. In 1948, Van Impe graduated from
high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
and entered Detroit Bible Institute, where he earned his diploma in 1952. It was then that he began his career as a
preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as ...
and evangelist and extensive recording career. While working with the
Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...
crusades, he was at a
Youth For Christ Youth For Christ (YFC) is a worldwide Christian movement working with young people, whose main purpose is evangelism among teenagers. It began informally in New York City in 1940, when Jack Wyrtzen held evangelical Protestant rallies for teenagers ...
rally with Chuck Ohman (a friend of Jack's who was a trumpeter for
Percy Crawford Percy Bartimus Crawford (October 20, 1902 – October 31, 1960) was an Christian evangelism, evangelist and Christian fundamentalism, fundamentalist leader who especially emphasized youth ministry. During the late 1950s, he saw the potential of F ...
's " Youth on the March" television broadcasts). Here, Jack 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, and was named after her father, Rex Shelton. The couple were married on August 21, 1954, and together started Jack Van Impe Ministries.


Recordings

Beginning in the 1950s, Van Impe released dozens of
Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
and spoken word recordings. His first album ''Presenting the Van Impes'' features Jack on the accordion and Rexella on organ. Subsequent musical recordings featured the accorgan, a type of electronic accordion. Parts of an unknown sermon were used in the 1995 house song "Sex on the Streets" by Pizzaman, although Van Impe talked about the same events in his 1970 album ''Marked for Death''.


Biblical prophecy beliefs

Jack Van Impe believed in one particular interpretation of the literal meaning of the Bible (King James version) that states, according to
Revelation In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Background Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on the ...
13, that a single world political leader ( the Beast) and a single world religious leader (the
False Prophet In religion, a false prophet is a person who falsely claims the gift of prophecy or divine inspiration, or to speak for God, or who makes such claims for evil ends. Often, someone who is considered a "true prophet" by some people is simultaneou ...
) will emerge, but the Rapture will happen before either leader comes to power. He believed 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, and that this ten-division world empire will be jointly ruled by the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
and the Islamic world, which he believed are represented by the two iron legs of the prophetic dream statue in the
Book of Daniel The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BC biblical apocalypse with a 6th century BC setting. Ostensibly "an account of the activities and visions of Daniel, a noble Jew exiled at Babylon", it combines a prophecy of history with an eschatology ...
. Van Impe believed in the
Prophecy of the Popes The Prophecy of the Popes ( la, Prophetia Sancti Malachiae Archiepiscopi, de Summis Pontificibus, "Prophecy of Saint-Archbishop Malachy, concerning the Supreme Pontiffs") is a series of 112 short, cryptic phrases in Latin which purport to predict ...
, and that according to said prophecy,
Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
is Peter the Roman, the predicted pope who will preside during
Armageddon According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...
. Van Impe preached a Pre-Tribulation Rapture of "The Body of Christ" and also said a one-world religion will form, named "Chrislam"; the joining of the world's two largest religions (Christianity and Islam). He believed 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 identified
Meshech In the Bible, Meshech or Mosoch ( he, ''Mešeḵ'' "price" or "precious") is named as a son of Japheth in Genesis 10:2 and 1 Chronicles 1:5. Another Meshech is named as a son of Shem in 1 Chronicles 1:17 (corresponding to the form ''Mash'' ...
and
Tubal Tubal ( he, תֻבָל, ''Ṯuḇāl'', ), in Genesis 10 (the "Table of Nations"), was the name of a son of Japheth, son of Noah. He is known to be the father of the Caucasian Iberians (ancestors of the Georgians) according to primary sources. ...
from the same passages as
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
and
Tobolsk Tobolsk (russian: Тобо́льск) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1590, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, an ...
respectively), along with its Middle Eastern allies ("
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, 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 Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
. Then China (the interpreted meaning of "kings from the east" from
Revelation In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Background Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on the ...
16:12) will invade, and the military of China will likewise be decimated when Jesus returns. Mark 13:9 “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues." Van Impe at various times in his last decades seemed very urgent that all signs had been fulfilled, but never mentions that Christians were being flogged in synagogues. In the September 3, 2016, episode of ''Jack Van Impe Presents'', a news headline is interpreted as fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah that the city of Damascus would be completely destroyed, increasing Van Impe's insistence that the end of time would happen "very, very soon." Strangely, Jack believed that at any one moment, the 24 time zones on earth would be labeled by three different days. His confusion about this was stated more than once because he felt it fulfilled the prophecy that no man would know the day of Jesus' return.


''Jack Van Impe Presents''

''Jack Van Impe Presents'' is a weekly telecast produced by Van Impe's non-profit organization at the Jack Van Impe Ministries World Outreach Center, in
Rochester Hills, Michigan Rochester Hills is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 76,300. It is the 14th-largest city in Michigan. The area was first occupied by settlers of European descent in 1 ...
. Van Impe's wife, Rexella, co-hosts. In June 2011,
Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its ...
refused to air an episode of ''Jack Van Impe Presents'' that criticized
Robert Schuller Robert Harold Schuller (September 16, 1926 – April 2, 2015) was an American Christian televangelist, pastor, motivational speaker, and author. In his five decades of television, Schuller was principally known for the weekly ''Hour of Po ...
and
Rick Warren Richard Duane Warren (born January 28, 1954) is an American Southern Baptist evangelical Christian pastor and author. He is the founder of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention in Lake Fo ...
for promoting "Chrislam". In response, Van Impe ceased airing his show on TBN.


Health and death

In one episode of ''Jack Van Impe Presents'', which aired during the week of June 19, 2006, Van Impe informed his audience 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 performed the operation. Subsequent to the problems with his knees, Van Impe suffered from
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
, a severe
sepsis Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...
attack, and blood loss resulting from stomach ulcers which he attributed to his
NSAID Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) are members of a therapeutic drug class which reduces pain, decreases inflammation, decreases fever, and prevents blood clots. Side effects depend on the specific drug, its dose and duration of ...
arthritis medication. On the episode which aired during the week of May 31, 2015, Jack Van Impe was absent from the program, and Rexella Van Impe explained that he had been hospitalized for triple by-pass heart surgery. Carl Baugh co-hosted the program until Van Impe's return to his weekly show on October 3, 2015. 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. 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. From April to 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 Web site. In 2018, radio and television broadcasts resumed, with Chuck Ohman serving as their announcer. Jack Van Impe died on January 18, 2020, at a hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan at the age of 88, three weeks before his 89th birthday.


References


External links


Jack Van Impe Ministries
World Outreach Ministries website

at Rapture Ready
Jack Van Impe (And Rexella)
: Premillennial Dispenationalist Preterist Study Archive, preteristarchive.com

Book review from Middle Town Bible Church {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Impe, Jack 1931 births 2020 deaths 20th-century accordionists 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American male writers 20th-century apocalypticists 20th-century evangelicals 21st-century American male writers 21st-century apocalypticists 21st-century evangelicals American accordionists American critics of Islam American evangelicals American people of Belgian descent American television evangelists Christian critics of Islam Christian media Evangelical writers Michigan Democrats People from Barry County, Michigan Place of death missing Television personalities from Detroit William Tyndale College alumni