Jack Van Impe

Jack Van Impe (1931–2020) was a televangelist known as the "Walking Bible."[1] Van Impe was another in a long line of biblical fundamentalists who preached that the world would soon end. His syndicated religious program Jack Van Impe Presents, co-hosted by his wife Rexella, was presented as a faux newscast complete with co-host chatter.

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Van Impe's ministry publishes Intelligence Briefing, a newsletter that provides an analysis of current events from the viewpoint of a fundamentalist paranoid conspiracy theorist.[2] This publication uses reputable news sources such as Breitbart, Russia Today, and World Net Daily cross-referenced with Bible verses that purport to validate Van Impe's apocalyptic worldview.[3]

The end is nigh

Van Impe had predicted the Apocalypse on numerous occasions, but as the dates came to pass, another miserable failure ensued. He last banked on the Mayan calendar end times of 2012 a nuclear war with Russia. Russia was one of his favorite bogeymen, as it fit in with his interpretation of the end times foretold in the book of Revelation. Of course, Islam and China also fit nicely with this conspiracy, and every single news event involving any of these subjects was used to demonstrate that his predictions were true.[4][5]

Van Impe escaped the death sentence despite the Old Testament commanding that prophets whose predictions fail should not live. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22). Fortunately for him, the United States is not a Christian country.

Controversy

Van Impe once called fellow televangelist Pat Robertson an “Osami [sic] bin Laden" for calling for the assassination of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.[6] He had also accused Rick Warren and others of blending Christianity with Islam, thus making... Chrislam. Van Impe severed his relationship with Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) over their reluctance to rebroadcast this insight.[7] Naturally, Warren denied it all.[8] Van Impe believes that interfaith activities are somehow connected with demonic influences and the New World Order.[9]

After severing ties with TBN, his show then appeared on rival religious broadcaster Daystar Television.[10]

Ever the stopped clock, he wrote the book Sabotaging the World Church to document and criticize intolerance and hyper-fundamentalism among his fellow independent Baptists.[11]

In 2001, Jack and Rexella Van Impe were "awarded" the Ig Nobel Prize in Astrophysics "for their discovery that black holes fulfill all the technical requirements to be the location of Hell."[12]

Announcer

The start and end of the Van Impe broadcasts, as well as the pitches for his latest book or DVD, was by the bass-throated Chuck Ohman, a former trumpeter for Percy B. Crawford's "Youth on the March" television broadcasts. Often on the Christmas themed broadcasts, he performed a religious song on his trumpet.[13]

Death, and irony

In one of his last broadcasts, Van Impe frequently made several remarks that he would defend Jesus "until his last breath" and announced a missionary project to travel the world and preach in major cities. Within days of this broadcast, Van Impe, who had many times prior claimed to receive visions of the future from God, died.[14][15] Perhaps there is a God after all.

gollark: I *may* be forced to disable the highly experimental HTTP/3 function of my nginx install, as it seems that it falls over when doing... concurrent requests or something?
gollark: ++data get geometry
gollark: Also my bismuth and geometry set.
gollark: I checked, heavserver does in fact have :esolime:.
gollark: I think heavserver has it?

See also

References
  1. Scripture Memorization at jvim.com.
  2. Intelligence Briefing at jvim.com.
  3. For example, see the May 2016 Intelligence Briefing, containing summaries of seven Breitbart articles, three from World Nut Daily, and one from Sputnik News (Russia Today) thrown in for good measure.
  4. Intelligence Briefing, December 2013.
    I, in 1951 began warning America and Canada that Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 predicted in verses 1 and 2 of both chapters that Armageddon would occur in the future under the cities named as Gog of Magog [Russia], as the Greeks called the Scythians who populated Russia. The other names Meshech [Moscow], Tubal [Tubalsk, Southwest of Siberia] – where the famous U-2 pilot, Gary Powers, was shot down in 1960.
  5. Intelligence Briefing, May 2014. Russia ... is preparing for World War III and is building massive weaponry for the battle of Armageddon — Revelation 16:16. So much for the START treaty Mr. President — Ezekiel 38 & 39.
  6. Televangelist Jack Van Impe called Robertson "an Osami bin Laden"
  7. Jack Van Impe Leaves TBN After Criticism Of Rick Warren, Robert Schuller
  8. Rick Warren Does Not Embrace Chrislam, Say Pastors
  9. Van Impe Censored by the Trinity Broadcasting Network Over 'Demonic Interfaith' and Apostasy Accusations.
    Although Trinity Broadcasting cut Van Impe's segment accusing Warren of apostasy, the Van Impe program is available on YouTube. It begins with Rexella Van Impe implying that "a one world religion" is affiliated with a biblical "new world order" that is a herald of the end times. Tony Blair and Bill Clinton were also accused by the Van Impes of spreading "interfaithism" that is part of this demonic new world order consisting of a world government and a world religion.
  10. Jack Van Impe Presents with Jack Van Impe
  11. Jack Van Impe, Sabatoging the World Church. June 1991. ISBN 0934803838.
  12. The 2001 Ig Nobel Prize Winners
  13. Chuck Ohman performing God Rest Ye Merry gentlemen on a Christmas 2008 episode of Jack Van Impe Presents
  14. Leah MarieAnn Klett, ‘The Walking Bible’ televangelist Jack Van Impe dies at 88. Christian Post, 20 January 2020.
  15. Hemant Mehta, Jack Van Impe, an Apocalyptic Televangelist, Has Died. friendlyatheist.patheos.com, 19 January 2020.
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