Jack Van Impe

Jack Leo Van Impe (born February 9, 1931) is an American 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, http://jvim.org/, claims that he is known as the "Walking Bible" because of his extensive memorization of Bible verses. His wife Rexella Van Impe (born Rexella Mae Shelton on November 29, 1932, in Missouri) shares his TV ministry as co-host. Rexella was named after her father, Rex Shelton.

Background

Van Impe's parents, Oscar Alphonse Van Impe and Marie Louise, née Piot, immigrated from Belgium to the city of Troy, Michigan in the United States in 1929.

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 Van Impe together smashed all of their bottles of alcoholic beverages, and since that event Van Impe has not drunk any alcohol.