Mario Bros. and the Problem of Hell<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I don't like Hell. That should be generally understood, given that I'm a pastor. I don't like to talk about it, I don't like to think about it, I don't\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/mario-bros-and-the-problem-of-hell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mario Bros. and the Problem of Hell\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don't like Hell. That should be generally understood, given that I'm a pastor. 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{"id":2839,"date":"2015-04-23T08:29:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T13:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/?p=2839"},"modified":"2015-04-23T08:29:58","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T13:29:58","slug":"mario-bros-and-the-problem-of-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/mario-bros-and-the-problem-of-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"Mario Bros. and the Problem of Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

My boys have the Nintendo Wii and live on a steady diet of Mario Bros. The newer versions are definitely kid friendly. Endless lives, countless checkpoints to save the game. There\u2019s never really a Game Over to\u00a0it. You just get to keep trying as much as you\u2019d like. Sooner or later you\u2019ll get there.<\/p>\n

$\"4.23.15\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

After playing this version of Mario for the past several years, I had the opportunity to relive my glory days on an original NES system and play Super Mario Bros. This is the original, old-school 8-bit graphic Mario that runs sideways the whole time. To my horror, I quickly realized that this old Mario had three lives. That was it. No check points, no continues, no second chances. If I got to the end of the game (I usually get stuck somewhere between World 8-2 and 8-3) and ran out of lives, I was simply out of luck. It seemed unfair. It was too\u00a0final, no second chances, no opportunities for a do over.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m used to the new Mario Bros. The old one seems too harsh. In the same way we\u2019re not comfortable with the idea of Hell because it seems too harsh. We want infinite lives. We want infinite chances. But life isn\u2019t going to work out that way. Join us this Sunday as we explore the question, \u201cWhy would a loving God send people to Hell?<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"