British Prime Minister Liz Truss will go down in history as the shortest-serving British prime minister in history—so far. With just 44 days in office, she announced today that she’ll be resigning.

The previous record holder was George Canning, who died 119 days into the job in 1827. His successor, the Viscount Goderich, resigned 144 days into the job.

By the end of next week, Britain will have a new prime minister—again—the third this year.

There’s a real sense of chaos in the United Kingdom. Inflation is at a 40-year high, at over 10 percent. Rising interest rates risk making housing unaffordable for the 1 million on variable rate mortgages. Around half of all mortgages will be paying market rates within the next three years.

Fuel prices are still high—the average petrol price is £1.82 per liter, or $7.77 per gallon. And the government is borrowing unknown billions to help families and businesses afford to keep the lights on and buildings warm this winter.

Why is everything going so horribly wrong?

Liz Truss has had a rough few weeks. She was elected on a platform of tax cuts and growth.

The British government dominates far too much of the economy, with a massive and inefficient tax and welfare state. But cutting spending is hard at the best of times. And Ms. Truss had not come to power after general election—there was no mandate to cut welfare spending that she could point to.

So, instead, she started with the easy bit: cut taxes. She could spend two years cutting taxes and regulation and get the economy going. With that under her belt, she could run for election and win a mandate to cut spending too.

In theory. The reality is a warning to countries around the world on the dangers of debt.

Over the last 15 years Britain’s debt has exploded from around £600 billion (us$663 billion) to £2.4 trillion (us$2.7 trillion). The government spent an estimate £400 billion on its covid response—including paying a huge proportion of the country to sit at home and do nothing. It promises another spending of somewhere around £150 billion (though no one really knows the full figure) to bring down energy bills.

Liz Truss believed she could chart a course to long-term financial stability through tax cuts and deregulation. But, at least in the short term, if not longer, cutting taxes meant more borrowing.

As the Proverb says, “the borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7). And lenders did not agree with Ms. Truss’s plan. She may have been right, or the extra debt may have sunk the economy. But she was not able to put her plan to the test.

The government had to pay higher interest rates to persuade lenders to hand over more cash. This jump in interest rates caused a crisis for UK pension providers.

In 2008, the world was introduced to subprime mortgages; 2022–2023 may bring liability-drive funds (ldis) into the common vocabulary. These are investments based on a lot of borrowed money, which make money when interest rates are low, but become a burden when rates rise.

Pensions don’t make much money when interest rates are low. To help make up for this, pension funds invested in ldis. When interest rates jumped, pension funds suddenly needed more cash on hand, to cover these investments. This pushed them all to try and sell government debt at once, which could have crashed the market and some pension funds.

The Bank of England was forced to step in and stabilize the system. This brush with crises prompted Liz Truss to reverse course. Bit by bit, she backtracked on her entire economic plan—the whole thing she was elected to put in place in the first place. On October 14, she fired her chancellor and brought in a replacement from the extreme left of the party.

Having reversed course on the entire platform she ran on for leader, it seemed hard to see how she could remain in office.

The events of last night convinced any remaining doubters that she had to go. First, the home secretary resigned—evidently refusing to go along with the new more left-wing direction of the government. Then the government tried to fight off a rebellion on the subject of fracking—the government wanted to legalize, many conservative Members of Parliament did not. The government won the vote, but there were so many U-turns and confusion—with some senior people apparently resigning and then un-resigning—it was a farce. It convinced even Ms. Truss’s supporters that while they may agree with her ideologically, she lacked the basic competence to do that job. Key party leaders had a word with Ms. Truss today, and the rest is history.

Now we get a similar process to one the UK went through in the summer—but on a compressed timeline. All candidates that can gain the support of at least 100 M.P.s will make it through to a final round. If multiple candidates gain this level of support, the rank-and-file members of the Conservative Party will have a few days to pick the one they want.

Boris Johnson is considering a rerun, and already has the support of several M.P.s. Rishi Sunak, the previous runner up, is also a leading contender.

In watching Britain fall apart, we’re watching a biblical passage come to life: Isaiah 3.

In this passage, God said He will take away all the capable leaders; the military generals, the “eloquent orator,” or skilled politicians, are all gone. Instead, God said, “I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them” (verse 4).

“When a state trusts to an arm of flesh, and puts its trust solely in its princes and men of might, in its diplomats and generals, in a word, in the strength of its men, and the Lord takes away these strong ones as false supports, then, of course, a condition must ensue in which weak hands manage the rudder of state,” writes Lange’s Commentary. Hence Britain’s leadership crisis.

The result is that “the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.”

Right now, a small group of spoiled, rich children are causing widespread disruption, blocking main roads, pouring out milk in supermarkets, and vandalizing famous artwork.

This isn’t the biggest problem facing the country, but it is one that could be fixed so quickly with just a little strength.

The result: People are desperate for somebody—anybody—to be a leader. We’re at a time when “a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand” (Isaiah 3:6).

“Such will be the want of men of wealth and ability, that they will ‘take hold of’ … the first man whom they meet, having any property, to make him ‘ruler,’” noted the Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary.

And so, Britain is desperate for anyone with ability to take over.

In our latest issue of the Trumpet print magazine, our editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote: “I believe that now that the Queen has died, Britain’s demise will accelerate.” We’ve seen that kick into a high gear.

In his cover article for the September Trumpet, he indicated that Britain, the U.S. and Israel may receive a reprieve in that fall. Yet the message from the Bible, and the latest events are clear: We’re out of leaders. Our way of life has failed. Our efforts to solve our problems are just digging us into deeper and deeper holes.

All our countries are facing grave problems. The only solution is not in stumbling upon a leader with actual ability; it is turning to God.

To understand more about Britain’s political turmoil and where it is leading, read “Britain’s and Judah’s Governments Fall—America Next?”