The resurrection of Jesus Christ constitutes the center of the New Testament message That God has raised Jesus, or in its more usual formulation, that Jesus has been raised, has formed the cynosure of the New Testament from its very beginning. Early Pauline writings contain such expressions of faith as: We believe that Jesus died and rose (1 Th 4:14). If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain (1 Cor 15:14). If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom 10:9). In short, without the message of the resurrection there would be no gospel, no belief, no church and no worship. Present-day controversy surrounds the resurrection and the authentic Christian understanding of the affirmation that Jesus has been raised from the dead. The thorny problem of the empty tomb of Jesus is closely connected with the discussion of the resurrection and bears upon one's understanding of Jesus' being raised from the dead. Hans Grass outlines the situation well when he writes: The question of the empty tomb belongs to the most difficult and debated problems of investigation and theology about the Eastern events. It is a key problem with which is closely bound the understanding of the corporality of the risen one, the nature of the appearances and thus the ophthe, indeed finally the whole eastern event.