Jack Van Impe


Jack Leo Van Impe was an American televangelist 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 was known as the "Walking Bible", having memorized most of the
King James Version 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 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. 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 father across Michigan and other states. In 1948, Van Impe graduated from high school and entered Detroit Bible Institute, where he earned his diploma in 1952. It was then that he began his career as a preacher and evangelist and extensive recording career.
While working with the Billy Graham crusades, he was at a Youth For Christ rally with Chuck Ohman. 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 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, a type of electronic accordion.

Biblical prophecy beliefs

Jack Van Impe believed in one particular interpretation of the literal meaning of the Bible that states, according to Revelation 13, that a single world political leader and a single world religious leader 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 and the Islamic world, which he believed are represented by the two iron legs of the prophetic dream statue in the Book of Daniel. Van Impe believed 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 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. He believed that 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, along with its Middle Eastern allies, 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 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 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, co-hosts.
In June 2011, Trinity Broadcasting Network refused to air an episode of "Jack Van Impe Presents" that criticized Robert Schuller and Rick Warren for promoting ". 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, a severe sepsis attack, and blood loss resulting from stomach ulcers which he attributed to his NSAID 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.