BRIDGETON —

“It’s the end of the world, ahhhh!” screamed one of a trio of teenage boys from the IGA parking lot as they walked by Edwin Ramos’ RV.

“That happens more than you would expect,” said Ramos.

Ramos has wrapped the RV in a shrink wrap that boldly predicts the world will end May 21, 2011.

Ramos has been driving his RV up and down the East Coast in an effort to spread the message, which he says is God’s and can be discovered through a careful reading of the Bible.

He said the story in which Noah is given seven days to build his ark, if one were to accept Saint Peter’s statement that one day with God is a thousand years, is supposed to represent the time humans have to save themselves before the rapture. Seven thousand years exactly after 4990 B.C., the alleged date of Noah’s flood, would be 2011, since there was no year zero.

Starting eight months ago, Ramos began to organize his life around the assumption that this is exactly what will happen.

Ramos handed ownership of his business, American Industrial Contractors, over to his father, who does not believe the world is going to end.

He traded a truck he had used for the business for the RV he drives now.

He, his wife and three children have moved into a mother-in-law apartment at his parents’ house to save on bills for the house he owns on Oak Road in Vineland. He is attempting to sell that house for the same price that he bought it for, for money to use until May.

He does not care if he profits because he believes it will not be of any use to him in about two months.

There are not many people who support Ramos or believe his message.

“I would say 99 percent of people who are not Christian scoff, and they say ‘We’ll see you May 22!’ or make gestures toward me,” he said. “Christians don’t make any gestures, but they definitely do not buy it.”

Ramos is careful to point out he is neither Christian, nor a member of any other official church. Until age 13 he was a member of the Pentecostal church with his parents.

Laughing, he admits he then switched to the non-denominational Cumberland County Community Church in pursuit of a girl who was a member.

He began to listen to Family Radio, whose founder, Harold Camping, is one of the major proponents of the May 21 rapture date, when he was 20.

Camping speculated in his book “1994?” that the world could end that year. This turned out to not be the case and his two latest books have promoted the idea that the world will end on May 21, 2011.

Ramos began to discuss some of these ideas with the pastor from the Community Church.

“We talked for days and days, and it came to the point where we were not seeing eye to eye,” he said, “so I ended up leaving the church in my late 20s.”

He describes his stance very logically.

“If all of these different churches were moving toward the truth, then there would be less and less beliefs and churches, as they accepted that what one was saying was true.

Instead they keep creating more and more. I could not find a church that I thought was teaching the truth.”

Just because he is not in a church does not mean there are not others who share his beliefs. He said an organization called We Can Know!, found at the website www.wecanknow.com, has put up more than 1,000 billboards across the country proclaiming the same message. He is on an email list at ebiblefellowship.com comprising 900 other members who plan for their meetings through the forum.

The most recent event was at the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade, where he said his RV and about 40 fellow believers were present, handing out fliers and informative literature to an incredulous crowd.

The group was not discouraged as they are planning to attend the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C., on April 10. Time is, after all, short and they want to reach as many people as possible.

When he is not spreading the message with others, Ramos is either on the road alone or with his wife and daughters, ages 8, 6, and 4.

“This has become my full-time job,” he said.

Before purchasing the RV, the girls had been attending Vineland public schools. Now that he travels and delivers the message as a full-time job, he has taken the girls out of school and his wife tutors them at home, something the couple is familiar with, having done so before.

Ramos doesn’t fit the stereotype of a prophet. He was clean shaven aside from a small beard, fit and well-spoken.

He was intelligent enough to have started and run American Industrial Contractors for nine years, making enough money in the process to purchase the Oak Street home for more than $200,000. He has been living off customers’ late payments for most of the last three months.

He said he feels compelled, though, by duty to spread word that the end of the world is coming, and that those who have not humbled themselves and begged for mercy had better do so.

“I’m not doing this because I want to. This isn’t fun at all, but I’m doing it because I have to,” he said.

When May 21 does come, Ramos said he does not plan on changing his routine.

“The Bible shows that God will begin judgment at sundown on May 21. When that time comes, I would like to be doing this with my family, and still trying to tell those who have not repented. It’s what I have to do.”