Can America Survive (1969)

Jack Van Impe
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Jack Van Impe

Jack Van Impe (February 9, 1931 – January 18, 2020) was an American preacher and televangelist whose calling from God led Jack Van Impe Ministries International for over seven decades, proclaiming an eschatological message of Christ’s imminent return. Born in Freeport, Michigan, to Oscar Alphonse Van Impe and Marie Louise Piot, Belgian immigrants who worked in factories and farms, he was their only child, raised amid the Great Depression’s hardships. Converted at 12 in 1943 alongside his parents at an independent Baptist church, he graduated from high school in 1948 and earned a diploma from Detroit Bible Institute (later William Tyndale College) in 1952, launching his ministry without formal advanced theological training. Van Impe’s calling from God unfolded in the 1950s as he joined Youth for Christ, partnering with figures like Billy Graham, and began preaching across Michigan with his accordion, a skill honed with his father. Ordained in 1951, he married Rexella Mae Shelton in 1954, forming a dynamic duo that founded Jack Van Impe Ministries in 1970. His sermons, emphasizing Bible prophecy and memorization—he earned the nickname “Walking Bible” for recalling over 14,000 verses—reached millions through “Jack Van Impe Presents,” airing from 1980 on Trinity Broadcasting Network and later independently after a 2011 split over his critique of “Chrislam.” Author of works like The Coming War with Russia and producer of films like The Rapture (1997), he called believers to prepare for end-times events. Married to Rexella, with no children, he passed away at age 88 in Royal Oak, Michigan.