Jack van Impe, known as
The Walking Bible, is a graying middle-aged
Baptist Christian Minister. His ministry, known as
Jack Van Impe Ministries, is focused on
The End Times,
The Rapture,
The Antichrist, etc. He was originally from
Troy,
Michigan. His father first entertained in
night clubs, but ended up becoming a
missionary in
Belgium. Jack Van Impe was brought along on tours of
Michigan, performing
accordion duets until age 17. He became a preacher in
1948 and entered
Detroit Bible College the same year.
He claims to have spent about 70,000 hours memorizing 14,000 Bible Verses, and you can really tell. He can barely get through a sentence without quoting one.
He has a late-night show, which is about "World News and Bible Prophecy". The Format: Rexella Van Impe, his wife, reads a news item. Then, he explains how it means that the end of the world is coming. He gets very worked up, and intersperses verses onto the end of all his sentences without a pause. It's inspirational to see him get so excited every week. Rexella Van Impe is an older woman who wears lots of makeup and has huge hair. She likes to dress like a real news anchor, and she seems to get turned on by his predictions. She is always urging him on, "Oh yes, that's right, Armageddon is coming soon!".
Lately, he has been very interested in uniting Christiandom, including even Catholics. Many other Fundamentalist Christians don't like that.
His web site is http://www.jvim.org He promotes his TV show, prophecy movies, and explains his predictions. Here is one where he predicts The Second Coming of Christ anytime from 2001 to 2012:
Jack: The Jews said God created the world in 6 days, Genesis 1:31, and He
rested on the seventh day, Genesis 2:2. And since a day is like a thousand
years, Psalm 90, verse 4, that means the world will go on for 6,000 years and
then our Meshia, our Messiah, will come. And Rabbi Blesh said that event is
now at the door, the messianic age. The Christians: same thing. In 2 Peter
3:3 it says "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers
saying 'Yeah, where's the promise of His coming? Since our grandparents
fell asleep, nothing's changed.'" But he goes on, context, verse 10: "The day
of the Lord will come," when? Verse 8, a day is like a thousand years, the
thousand years is like a day. After 6,000 years. And that hits, not at 2000,
but 2001, so don't wear your white sheets January 1, 2000. You've got
another year to go, if you're going to be accurate. Then, I believe, because of
calendar changes, it could be anywhere from 2001 to 2012. We don't set a
day or an hour, Matthew 24:36, but we believe it's near, even at the door,
Matthew 24:33. And please study Matthew 16:28 and Matthew 17:1, after six
days Jesus took them up to a mountain and He showed them what it's going
to be like when His kingdom arrived on earth, when? After 6 days, 6,000
years. Oh, it's all so near.
(Jack Van Impe Show,
TBN,
December 1, 1999)