The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA) was a far-right survivalist anti-government militia which advocated Christian Identity and was active in the United States during the 1970s and early 1980s. The CSA developed from a Baptist congregation, the Zarephath-Horeb Community Church, which was founded in 1971 in Pontiac, Missouri. Over time, Zarephath-Horeb evolved into an extremist militant group and it was rechristened the CSA. The group operated a large compound in northern Arkansas which was known as "the Farm". In April of 1985, federal and state law enforcement officials who had been investigating the CSA for weapons violations and terrorist acts carried out a three-day siege of their compound. Following a peaceful resolution, officers arrested and later convicted the CSA's top leaders, eventually causing the organization to dissolve. Leadership The founder of the CSA was James Ellison. He was jailed in federal prison along with Kerry Noble. Robert G. Millar became one of Ellison's spiritual advisers, and he also founded Elohim City. Ellison was mentored by Richard Girnt Butler, founder of the Aryan Nations, and Robert E. Miles, founder of the Mountain Church of Jesus Christ the Savior in Cohoctah, Michigan. Both extreme right-wing leaders taught and practiced the theology of Christian Identity, a belief system which is included on the FBI's watch list of extremist religions. Ellison had close ties to the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations, based in Hayden Lake, Idaho, and led by Butler, who was described as "the glue of the Aryan Nations movement in the Northwest, if not the country" by the supervisor of the Inland Northwest Joint Terrorism Task Force. Miles operated a prison ministry and he also published a newsletter, most of the readers of it were members of violent white Aryan groups, of which there are many, the most notable group is the Aryan Brotherhood. After Ellison was released from prison, he moved to Elohim City, where he married Millar's granddaughter. The CSA community's Council of Elders was influenced and mentored by many outside sources. The nine-man council deliberated on the spiritual meaning and the direction of CSA activities. Jim Ellison, Kerry Noble, and William Wade were the only known members of the council. Members In June 1982, the CSA had an estimated 90 to 120 members, consisting of men, women, and children. In April 1984, the number of members had been reduced to less than