Is Jack Van Impe Setting Dates?

Below are several statements made by Jack Van Impe, host of the TV show “Jack Van Impe Presents,” regarding specific dates for end-times events.

Van Impe made this statement in answer to this question: “The year 2012 has been in recent discussions, but the year 2018 always stays with me as an important year also – 70 years from 1948. Is there any significance to this date?”

“You’re very close, Keith but we don’t begin with Israel becoming a nation, in 1948. We begin with Daniel 9:24 the Jews capturing Jerusalem, Luke 21:24. A generation is 52 years, Matthew 1:17. Add it to 1967 and it comes out to 2019, minus 7 years for the Rapture – 2012. I hope that’s good.”

Link: http://www.jvim.org/qotw/archive.php?display=11

Van Impe also made this statement in response to the question “The Mayan calendar ends December 25, 2012. How does that date correlate with our calendar and the Hebrew calendar?”

“Well, first of all, it is not December 25, it is December 21 of 2012 that the world supposedly will end, according to the Mayan calendar. However, it will never end because it's a world without end, Isaiah 45:17 and Ephesians 3:21. How does it apply to our calendar? Same dates. Same time exactly. But the Jewish calendar is something like 240 years or more behind. But Eleizer Shulman in the Jerusalem Post did a tremendous article showing how in the book of Numbers there was an error made by the Jewish scribes who kept the dates, and they are really at the same year we are now, if they corrected their calendar. Plus, I have a genealogical chart at home starting with Adam and all the generations, and names every one of them and how long they lived, and it comes out exactly to the date of our calendar. So I don't believe that that could be the Rapture, because we need seven years between that and Christ coming to earth. I believe it could be the beginning of Armageddon.”

Link: http://www.jvim.org/qotw/archive.php?display=76

In answer to another question regarding Van Impe’s statements about his 2018 statements, Van Impe said,

“Well he's referring to what I've said in the past, that in Mark 1:17, there were 42 generations, and that is from Abraham to Christ, a total of 2160 years. So when one divides 42 into 2160, it comes out to basically 51.5 years. So a generation is not 40 years as we so often said, or others have said, but 51.4. Then when we get to Luke chapter 3, verses 23 to 38, there is 77 generations from Adam to Christ and that's 4,000 years. When one divides 77 into 4,000, he also comes out to 51.9 years. So a generation is 51 years. We begin counting this countdown to the return of Christ from the time that Jerusalem is captured by the Jews, Luke 21:24, because the 70 weeks are determined upon thy people, the Jews, Daniel 9:24. So when one adds 51.5 to 1967, when the Jews captured Jerusalem, it comes out to 2018. Now, I cannot accept what our dear brother has just said, for this reason. Adam lived to be 930 years, Genesis 5:5, and Methuselah 969 years. So you can't say a generation is 900 or 1,000 years. God puts them all together from Adam right up until His Son in Luke 3:23 to 38 and it comes out to 51.9 and that's 2018. We don't set a date now. But Jesus said, I command you to know when it's near, even at the door, Matthew 24:33 and 36.”

Link: http://www.jvim.org/qotw/archive.php?display=199

Van Impe also made this statement in answer to another one of his viewer's questions on a recent show and it is in the "Question of the Week" section on his website, www.jvim.org:

"In the light of everything we've said today this is such an important question. I have read the book The Fingerprints of the Gods. It's a tremendous volume and it covers the Inca and Aztec calendars, both ending on December 25th, 2012. Now, what could it mean? When they talk about the end of the world, as far as the Incas and Aztecs are concerned, they don't mean the end of the world because they have five endings and one of them was Noah's experience with the flood. It didn't end the world. Furthermore, as you know and as I’ve said already in this program, the world is never going to end, Isaiah 45:17 and Ephesians 3:21. So what could it mean? Oh, I'm excited. In Matthew 1 verse 17 it lists 42 generations from Abraham to Christ. 42. Historically, that covers 2,160 years. Divide 42 into that number and you come out to 51.4 years. What's the countdown? Jerusalem being taken by the Jews, for Jerusalem starts the seven-year period of tribulation, Daniel 9:24. Add 51.4 to 1967 and you come out to 2018. But I just saw this, this week: you add the extra six months because it happened in June of '67 and the 4/10 and you come out to 2019 and take away the 7 from that and you come out to 2012. Could it be on Christmas day Jesus Christ would come at that moment? We don't know the day and hour, Matthew 24:36, but Jesus commands us to know when it's near even at the door. I'm not dogmatic on this, but could this be the thing that's going to be revealed through the Inca and Aztec's calendars? Come, Lord Jesus." (emphasis added)

Van Impe also made this statement in 2004 on his show and in his "Question of the Week" on his website:

"I've said in the past, that in Mark 1:17, there were 42 generations, and that is from Abraham to Christ, a total of 2160 years. So when one divides 42 into 2160, it comes out to basically 51.5 years. So a generation is not 40 years as we so often said, or others have said, but 51.4. Then when we get to Luke chapter 3, verses 23 to 38, there is 77 generations from Adam to Christ and that's 4,000 years. When one divides 77 into 4,000, he also comes out to 51.9 years. So a generation is 51 years. We begin counting this countdown to the return of Christ from the time that Jerusalem is captured by the Jews, Luke 21:24, because the 70 weeks are determined upon thy people, the Jews, Daniel 9:24. So when one adds 51.5 to 1967, when the Jews captured Jerusalem, it comes out to 2018. Now, I cannot accept what our dear brother has just said, for this reason. Adam lived to be 930 years, Genesis 5:5, and Methuselah 969 years. So you can't say a generation is 900 or 1,000 years. God puts them all together from Adam right up until His Son in Luke 3:23 to 38 and it comes out to 51.9 and that's 2018. We don't set a date now. But Jesus said, I command you to know when it's near, even at the door, Matthew 24:33 and 36." (emphasis added)