Restart game after multiple deaths

Hello. I developed a game with 3 levels. Each level the player can die up to 3x. If they die 3 times, they restart at the first scene i Built. I have a total of four scenes in the build. When it does restart, It seems as if the 1st scene loads but quits? What can cause this. Do I have to go in and rebuild the scenes again and have a total of 8 scenes in the build.

Would it be Application.loadLevel??? because that is what I am using but it seems as if they leves may already be loaded and not destroyed--just a guess.

Any ideas would be great?

minor coding error i was experience. My if then statement wasnt clear enough to trigger the new scene. I think i had dual code in different placed. One on the main character and one on the guitext that stored the amount of lives.