Jack Van Impe

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Jack Van Impe
Born Jack Leo Van Impe
(1931-02-09) February 9, 1931 (age 82)
Troy, Michigan, U.S.
Education diploma, Detroit Bible Institute
Occupation Evangelist, Author, Apocalyptic Bible Prophet, Biblical Scholar, TV show host, Television Personality
Known for Founder of Jack Van Impe Ministres International (JVIM)
Host of the Jack Van Impe Presents syndicated TV program
Title Dr. Jack Van Impe
Religion Evangelical Christian, Baptist
Spouse(s) Rexella Shelton, 1954 - present
Website
http://www.jvim.com

Jack Leo Van Impe (born February 9, 1931)[1][2] is a 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 his interpretation of the Bible. The program airs throughout the United States, Canada, and several other countries through both religious broadcasters and the purchase of paid programming time on commercial television stations. Van Impe's website claims that he is known as the "Walking Bible" because of his extensive memorization of Bible verses.[3] Van Impe's wife Rexella (born Rexella Mae Shelton on November 29, 1932, in Missouri[4]) shares his TV ministry as co-host.

Contents

Biography[edit]

Jack Van Impe's parents, Oscar Alphonse Van Impe and Marie Louise, née Piot, immigrated to the United States from Belgium in 1929. Originally from Troy, Michigan, Van Impe was an accordion player as a child, performing 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. In an episode of Jack Van Impe Presents, Jack notes that during his years working with the Billy Graham crusades, Van Impe met his future wife, Rexella, who was an organist with the crusades. The couple were married on August 21, 1954, and started their own joint ministry.

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.

Detroit-area rock singer and songwriter Bob Seger features an audio clip of Van Impe criticizing rock and roll music in the introductory portion of his song "Heavy Music Part 2," the B side of his 1967 regional hit single Heavy Music.

Jack Van Impe Ministries[edit]

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

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.

Twice during the broadcast, once in the middle of the broadcast and once at the end, announcer Chuck Ohman, who many years before was a trumpeter for Percy B. Crawford's "Youth on the March" television broadcasts, describes a DVD that is being sold by the ministry, and how to order. 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. At the end of the broadcast, Rexella says the goodbyes.

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 radical Islam, the removal of crosses from churches, the importance of doctrine, and criticism of such individuals as Barack Obama, Rick Warren, Robert Schuller, Joel Osteen, and Oprah Winfrey. Jack also cites numerous bible verses.

In 2001, Jack Van Impe Ministries "won" the parodic Ig Nobel Prize in Astrophysics for its assertion that "black holes fulfill all the technical requirements to be the location of Hell."[5]

Biblical prophecy beliefs[edit]

Jack believes that, according to Revelation 13, 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 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.[6]

Van Impe also believes a one-world religion will form, named "Chrislam", the joining of the world's two largest religions, Christianity and Islam. Jack believes the Bible states that the world political leader will "come in peaceably" and create a seven-year peace deal involving Israel. Then, three and a half years into the peace, Russia (the interpreted meaning of "Rosh"), 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") will invade, according to Revelation 16, and the military of China will likewise be decimated when Jesus returns.

Other beliefs[edit]

Van Impe's most recent broadcasts have contained sweeping denunciations of Islam, such as "a religion where they control people and put them into bondage", and referring to a "demographic strategy to flood Europe with Muslim immigrants and create an Islamic continent", according to the 9 February 2013 broadcast.

Education[edit]

Jack Van Impe and his wife have received doctorate degrees from Pacific International University,[7] an unaccredited, conservative Christian university.

Health problems[edit]

In an episode of Jack Van Impe Presents aired 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.[citation needed] Subsequent to the problems with his knees, Jack has suffered from cancer, a severe sepsis attack, and blood loss resulting from holes burned through his stomach.

Criticisms[edit]

For over 20 years, Van Impe has sold low-budget films supplementing teachings from his television program. These films depict themes of apocalypse, Christ's second-coming, modern oppression of Christians and dystopian themes. The films range from $9.99 - $39.99, and market without any "free" online alternative.

On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kimmel mocked Van Impe for stating that the word "computer" added up to 666 by adding up the number of each letter in the word multiplied by 6, and for saying that the antichrist will use computers to keep track of people. Kimmel further criticized Jack Van Impe Ministries for giving instructions on how to access and download content from their website, right after talking about how evil computers are.[8]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jack Van Impe at the Internet Movie Database
  2. ^ Religious Leaders of America, 2nd ed., Gale Group, 1999
  3. ^ Jack Van Impe website, "About" section
  4. ^ Jack Van Impe Presents, 12 May 2012
  5. ^ "The 2012 Ig Nobel Prize Winners". improbable.com. Retrieved January 1, 2013. 
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ http://www.jvim.org/pt/2004/2004SeptOct.pdf
  8. ^ "Computers = 666!?". Jimmy Kimmel Live!. YouTube. Retrieved January 1, 2013. 

External links[edit]

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