Ellen G. White The Great SDA Plagiarist
By Robert K. Sanders
 

Question? What do you call a person that takes the words and thoughts of other authors without giving credit and then claims the words come from God? A plagiarist  a thief and a liar.

Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary
Main Entry: pla-gia-rize
Etymology: plagiary
Date:1716
transitive verb : to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source
intransitive verb : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.
 

William Johnsson then Editor of the Adventist Review used the following quote from Ellen G. White in defending her in his debate with Walter Martin and John Ankerberg on the Ankerberg Show in 1985, in the program title: Who Is Telling The Truth?

EGW: In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived. "He that hath the Son hath life" (1 John 5:12). The divinity of Christ is the believer's assurance of eternal life. "He that believeth in me," said Jesus, "though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." . . . Christ here looks forward to the time of His second coming ( The Desire of Ages , p. 530). (1898)

While it is true that Christ's life is "original, unborrowed and underived the same cannot be said of EGW's when she plagiarized words for her books. This is one of many examples where Ellen G. White who claimed her words came from God, lied to her church and the public. Here she took the words  from the book Sabbath Evening Readings by Rev.  John Cumming published 1856 and placed them in her own book The Desire of Ages published in 1898. The reader can see Cumming's words highlighted in yellow from his book.

  Rev. John Cumming: Wrote Sabbath Evening Readings in 1856: "In him was life,"— that is, original, unborrowed, underived.

Ellen G. White: In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived. "He that hath the Son hath life" (1 John 5:12). The divinity of Christ is the believer's assurance of eternal life. "He that believeth in me," said Jesus, "though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." . . . Christ here looks forward to the time of His second coming ( The Desire of Ages , p. 530). (1898)

EGW Claims: "Although I am as dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord in writing out my views as I am in receiving them, yet THE WORDS I EMPLOY IN WHAT I HAVE SEEN ARE MY OWN,  unless they be spoken to me by an angel, which I always enclose in marks of quotation." -- Ellen G. White , "Review and Herald" October 8, 1867; "Selected Messages" Book 3,  p. 49

Grandson Arthur White: IF THE VISIONS COULD BE ACCOUNTED FOR THROUGH INFLUENCES OTHER THAN (2) THE SPIRIT OF GOD, if the messages she bore reflected the THINKING of strong minds about her,  THEN  THE WRITINGS CLAIMED SET FORTH DIVINE INSTRUCTION ARE NO MORE THAN HUMAN ORIGIN and have no binding claim on us today." -- Source: Arthur L. White, Secretary EGW Estate; "Review and Herald", May 14, 1959

More on EGW's plagiarism

http://www.truthorfables.com/Great_Controversy_Plagiarism.htm SDA Researchers and By E. S. Ballenger  

http://www.truthorfables.com/Desire_of_Ages_Veltman.htm By Fred Veltman