Coal in the Stocking: A Harmless Bluff?

Every December, parents everywhere tell their kids that if they misbehave, Santa will leave coal in their stockings instead of presents. It’s an empty threat, of course. The coal never comes. Eventually, the kids realize it was just a bluff—a tool to encourage good behavior during the holidays.

I’ve never felt comfortable with using threats of coal with my kids. Even if it’s “just for fun,” I didn’t want them to feel hurt and betrayed and manipulated when they learned the truth.

But what if God did the exact same thing?

What if God threatened eternal punishment that He never intended to carry out?

In other words, what if He threatened us with coal in our stockings that he never intended to deliver.

Would that be a sincere warning–or manipulation? And more importantly, would it be consistent with the character of the God who “cannot lie”?

Does God Bluff Too?

Doctrine & Covenants 19, a foundational text in Latter-day Saint scripture, presents just such a scenario. It redefines the phrase “eternal punishment” not as punishment that lasts forever, but as punishment belonging to God, whose name is “Eternal.”

“Nevertheless, it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment…

 Again, it is written eternal damnation; wherefore it is more express than other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men, altogether for my name’s glory.

For, Endless is my name. Wherefore—Eternal punishment is God’s punishment. Endless punishment is God’s punishment.” (D&C 19:6-7, 10-12).

D&C 19 attributes to Jesus the claim that He used the term “eternal” knowing that people would interpret it to mean punishment without end. Indeed, he explains that this was the reason that he used the phrase “eternal damnation” as it would be “more express than other scriptures.” Jesus admits that he used emotionally charged threats in order to scare people to repent. Like a parent threatening coal at Christmas, He says one thing while meaning another.

This kind of deception is unbecoming of God and deeply destructive to a right understanding of God.

Shedd on the Folly of False Threats

I recently came across a powerful refutation from William Shedd, a renowned 19th century Reformed theologian. While Shedd was not responding to Joseph Smith and Mormonism, he was responding to universalist authors who similarly taught that hell would be a place of temporary discipline rather than torment.

Shedd explained that if Jesus’s warnings about hell were not true, it would be both “falsehood and folly.” It would be false because “even a long punishment in the future world would not have justified Christ in teaching that this class of mankind are to experience the same retribution with ‘the devil and his angels.’”

Indeed, these threats would only work if “for the persons threatened, it would have been a terror only because they took a different view of it from what its author did—they believing it to be true, and he knew it to be false!”

Such threats, Shedd continues, would be “foolish, because it would have been a brutum fulmen, an exaggerated danger, certainly in the mind of its author.”

When Warnings Lose Their Meaning

Shedd’s argument strikes at the heart of the matter: if God warns of “eternal punishment,” but knows it is only temporary, then either:

(1) He is intentionally misleading, or

(2) He is playing a rhetorical game with words while letting souls believe something false.

In either case, the moral and theological cost is immense.

It’s not just a problem of word choice—it’s a crisis of truth, trust, and salvation.”

Jesus Spoke Clearly—Even When It Hurt

Jesus Christ did not lie or dissemble in this manner. He spoke boldly and clearly of the threat of hell. He told stories with graphic depictions of hell (e.g., Mark 9:43–48, where “the fire is not quenched”), and He described a final and irrevocable separation between the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31–46).

Jesus spoke clearly on this topic even when people around Him responded with shock and horror. After one tough teaching about wealth and salvation, His disciples asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus didn’t soften the blow, but emphasized, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:25–26).

Similarly, when someone asked, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” Jesus didn’t reassure him with universalism. Instead, He urged, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:23–24).

His warnings were severe because the danger of eternal hell is real.

If Jesus gave these warnings while knowing that the people he spoke to would eventually be saved and receive a kingdom of glory, then he was a deceiver and not divine.

If Jesus used threats He knew were not literally true, then those who repented because of fear of “eternal torment” were responding to a deliberately false impression. That raises serious questions about both the sincerity of their conversion and ethical integrity of God’s appeal

What If God Doesn’t Mean What He Says?

A God who says one thing but means another undermines trust, justice, and the whole notion of divine revelation. The Bible declared that God cannot lie. “Let God be true though every one were a liar.” (Romans 3:4)

If God could be exaggerating the horrors of hell for rhetorical effect, then how do we know he isn’t lying or exaggerating when he promises us eternal joy? Can we really trust “in the hope of eternal life, which god, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time” Titus 1:2. What other teachings might God have given only for rhetorical effect? It is only because “it is impossible for God to lie” that we can “have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.” Hebrews 6:18.

And we must also consider this:

How many people, especially today, have rejected Jesus precisely because of His teachings about hell?

If those warnings are true, then Jesus is the faithful watchman—raising the alarm to awaken a dying world. But if D&C 19 is right, and Jesus deliberately exaggerated the danger of hell to provoke fear, then He becomes morally responsible for those who turned away, thinking Him too harsh.

That is not the Jesus of the Bible.

That is not the God who cannot lie.

That is not good news.

Hell, Hope, and the Character of God

Jesus warned of hell not just to scare us for rhetorical effect, but to give us an understanding of the seriousness of our predicament. He wanted us not to fear what people can do, but to “fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt 10:28). He wanted us to understand the price he paid for our sins on the cross. And he wanted us to understand the generosity of his offer of grace.

Hell is terrifying.

It is real.

But Jesus overcame it for us.

And that is good news we can rely on–because we know that God cannot lie.