Declassified CIA Files Claim End of the World Predicted by Jesus in an Unusual 1960s Publication

CIA files released by the US government include a 1960s extract from Chan Thomas's The Adam and Eve Story, a book claiming Jesus foresaw a civilisation-ending catastrophe. The document was released in 2013, but it was not written by the CIA, and there is no evidence the agency endorsed its claims.

What the CIA Files Actually Contain

The material concerns a 57-page file dated to 1966 and catalogued in the CIA's General CIA Records collection. Its contents include part of Thomas's book, extracts from Time magazine and a handwritten transmittal note. The CIA record identifies the publication as miscellaneous material, rather than an intelligence assessment.

That distinction matters. Online posts have repeatedly described The Adam and Eve Story as a secret CIA publication that explains how the world will end. The available records do not support that reading. A CIA spokesperson told Lead Stories the document was released as part of the agency's routine review of permanent records no longer requiring secrecy protections.

Thomas's book itself was published before it appeared in the archive. Catalogue records list editions from 1963 and 1965, while the version reproduced in the released file carries an Emerson House imprint from Los Angeles. The book was therefore not created by the intelligence agency, nor does its presence in a CIA file establish official approval.

The file's handwritten note appears to read 'for: Art' and 'from: [redacted]'. That brief exchange has helped fuel speculation about how the pages entered the collection. It does not, on its own, explain who requested the material or why it was retained.

The Claims About Jesus and Pole Shifts

Thomas's central argument is that Earth has suffered repeated civilisation-ending catastrophes caused by dramatic shifts in the planet's poles. In the book, he links those events to the biblical accounts of Adam and Eve and Noah's Flood.

He also presents a striking interpretation of Jesus. Thomas claims Jesus was not the figure traditionally understood through the Bible, but an academic who had studied in India. The book further suggests that Jesus recognised an approaching disaster and tried to prepare humanity for it.

One passage offers Thomas's alleged translation of Jesus's final words on the cross as, 'I am fainting, I am fainting, darkness is overcoming me'. The book also claims that Jesus's ascension was actually an extraction by a 'space vehicle'.

Those claims are extraordinary, but the released CIA file does not validate them. It simply preserves pages from a privately authored work. No evidence in the records shows that the agency accepted Thomas's historical, theological or scientific conclusions.

Thomas also describes 'null zones' in the Milky Way. According to his theory, the Solar System periodically passes through these regions, triggering catastrophic changes on Earth. The book connects the proposed cycle with the destruction of earlier civilisations, although the released material does not provide evidence that such events occurred.

Why the Document Became a Conspiracy Magnet

The combination of a CIA stamp, redacted material and apocalyptic language was almost tailor-made for online conspiracy culture. Social media posts have presented the book as forbidden knowledge, despite catalogue records showing that it had circulated publicly for decades.

A 2023 fact-check traced one viral Instagram video that claimed the CIA document revealed how the world would end. The post treated Thomas's text as if it were an intelligence finding. That interpretation was misleading, because the file contained an excerpt from a book and other publicly available material, rather than a CIA prediction.

The file also contains details that make its origins difficult to reconstruct. Alongside the book and magazine extracts is a reference to ordinary objects including a toolkit, tyre gauges, a key ring and a wing repair kit. Their inclusion adds to the document's strangeness, but the records do not establish a connection between those items and Thomas's theories.

Thomas's own background has added another layer to the story. The supplied material describes him as having worked in UFO-related research connected to the US aerospace industry. It also attributes acknowledgements in the book to senior American military figures. Those details may explain why the text later attracted attention, but they do not turn speculation into evidence.

The safest reading of the CIA files is also the least sensational. They show that government records once contained pages from an unusual book. They do not show that the CIA knew when the world would end, that Jesus predicted a pole shift or that Thomas's ideas were secretly confirmed.

The mystery is not whether the book was an official prophecy. It was not. The unresolved question is why those pages were retained in the first place, and the released record does not answer it.