This verse reminds us of God’s perfect foreknowledge. Nephi wants us to see God has foreknowledge and throughout history has revealed things to us before they occur. God is the God of truth. He has all knowledge. The definition of truth is given in D&C 93:24:
“And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come.” God lives in a state in which all truth is before Him continually. D&C 130: 6–8: “The angels do not reside on a planet like this earth; But they reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord. The place where God resides is a great Urim and Thummim.”
God possesses perfect foreknowledge and since we do not, we see the gap between Him and ourselves. Foreknowledge is chief among the things which distinguish our limited understanding from God’s perfect understanding.
In Nephi’s context, he is telling us God has the power to provide foreknowledge by revelation to us. And God provided such foreknowledge to Nephi. Nephi can prophesy to us in his record and bear testimony of future events. He has seen them. He knows they will come to pass. Therefore, as Nephi recounts this testimony about the future coming of Christ—His ministry, resurrection, visit to the Americas, latter-day restoration of the Gospel to the Gentiles, restoration of latterday covenant Israel and details of our day—we should realize God has used His power to make these things known to Nephi. If God has, in times past, revealed things concerning others (and He has), then why cannot God reveal things about us as well? Are we not a part of the children belonging to Him? Our own history involves His will as much as past times and people. We are as intimately connected with God’s dealings as any past peoples were. Nephi has this prophetic foreknowledge and testimony because God can and does reveal such things to His children.
Nephi’s testimony should be taken seriously. His prophecies of our day should be studied and pondered. Nephi’s revelations are as reliable as any past revelation by God to any other prophet. His brothers had great difficulty accepting this concept. We should not be like them, and we should welcome Nephi’s admonitions, counsel and corrections, even when they do not flatter us.