Until six weeks ago, Ramsey spent most days working at the catering company in the city. At night, he and his family would gather to study and write down the Bible's code, trying to verify what they had heard on Camping's radio shows. Ramsey and his 19-year-old brother would do the math and charts. Ramsey's wife, Marcia Paladines -- she says her "math isn't so good" -- would read alongside them. His mother, Jackie, would cook broccoli casserole and potato soup for the group.
The resulting Biblical study took almost a year to finish. But Ramsey says the numbers, which match Camping's, are "undeniable."
Camping, a frail 89-year-old who speaks in a slow but sonorous voice for hours each day on his "Open Forum" call-in show, is convinced that he crunched the exact date of the Rapture through a complex set of equations.
For example, he says, certain numbers repeat in the Bible along with particular themes. The number five means "atonement." Ten means "completeness." Seventeen is "heaven."
"Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he says. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years."
If you multiply that number by 365.2422 -- the number of days in the solar calendar -- it equals 722,449. And if you add 51 (the number of days between April 1 and May 21) to that number, it equals 722,500.
Multiply five by ten by 17 to equal 850, and multiply 850 by 850 and the result is the same: 722,500.
That’s just one example.
Camping's radio ministry, which is worth more than $120 million, has 66 stations throughout the country. Its broadcasts reach as far as Nigeria and, via the Internet, it's available in 61 languages.
"Salvation comes only through faith," he says. "We don't know what's going to happen to Family Radio or the banks or anyone else on that day, but it will be horror." Camping himself doesn't know whether he will be saved. Those outcomes are predetermined by God, he says.
Yet this isn't the first time Camping has predicted 'The End.'
On Sept. 6, 1994, dozens of Camping's followers gathered a short drive from the radio station's office in Alameda, Calif. to watch for the return of Christ. Nothing happened.
Today, Camping says he got his math wrong and hadn't "fully examined" parts of the Bible until more recently.
"I always said if it wasn't 1994, it would be 2011," says Camping. He won't entertain the idea that May 21 could pass without a blip.
Neither will his followers.
Two years ago, Ramsey moved to the New York City area to study audio production and immerse himself in the city's art scene. He eventually settled in a modest two-bedroom apartment in Harrison, N.J. Paladines joined him two months later and got a job as a bank teller. Ramsey's brother, mother and father also moved shortly thereafter.
Around the same time, the family stumbled upon Family Radio, which broadcasts from 94.7 WFME FM in West Orange, N.J. Camping was deep into his end-times prophecy.
"In the beginning, I was like, 'Wow, would you believe in a date? Doesn't the Bible say nobody can know?'"says Paladines.
They started attending a Pentecostal church in Newark that is popular among the city's burgeoning Hispanic population. Filled with the Holy Spirit, congregants would speak in tongues and fall to the floor.
Ramsey and Paladines found it bizarre. Their membership only lasted a few months. Last year, they dusted off their King James Bible, returned to Family Radio and began researching Camping's ideas.
"God showed me a lot of things I haven't learned before. The numbers make sense. And look at all these things happening in the world: Earthquakes. The radiation in Japan. Tornados. Flooding," says Paladines.
Late last year, she become pregnant. The baby is is due May 27.
huffingtonpost.com
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