Steven Olsen theorizes that the interpretive unity of Nephi's second record (small plates) is provided by his vision of the Savior and the plan of salvation in the promised land (1 Nephi 11-14). According to Olsen, this vision defines the covenant themes which permeate his writings.
Nephi's account of his vision is a literal representation of a portion of the plan of salvation. The difference between Lehi's dream and Nephi's literal vision lies at the heart of the message of the Book of Mormon. By representing the plan of salvation in literal historical happenings, rather than the allegorical terms of Lehi's dream, Nephi defined a consciousness of history in which God acts through spatial, temporal, and human contexts to effect the salvation of his children.
Nephi's vision identifies three essential elements to this plan of salvation: Christ's gospel, the Promised Land, and the House of Israel. In his record, they are defined in conventional terms, elaborated in prophecy and spiritual experiences and lived through historical experience.
It is interesting to note that of the more than 200 specific prophecies in the Book of Mormon, less than 10 are not expressly anticipated by Nephi. [Steven L. Olsen, Covenants in the Book of Mormon, Unpublished Manuscript]
“I Bear Record That I Saw the Things Which My Father Saw”
John Welch notes that in 1 Nephi 8, Lehi saw the tree of life, an iron rod, a great and spacious building, and various people reaching the tree or falling away. In 1 Nephi 11-14, Nephi beheld the condescension of God, the twelve apostles of the Lamb, wars between his posterity and the seed of his brothers, a great and abominable coalition of evil, and the eventual victory of God's people.
The two visions are very different in character. Lehi's dream is intimate, symbolic, and salvific; Nephi's vision is collective, historic, and eschatological. Yet both visions embrace the same prophetic elements, only from different angles.
Intriguingly, when we set these two visions side by side, they are indeed significantly the same, element for element (see the elements charted below). Although the casual reader might not see any connection between these two texts at first, the correlation between them is extensive and precise. It is unlikely that this occurred accidentally. Nephi was well aware of his father's vision, so much so that he desired "to behold the things which [his] father saw" (1 Nephi 11:3). As different as these two visions may appear at first glance, Nephi clearly and correctly bore record "that I saw the things which my father saw" (1 Nephi 14:29). Thus Nephi spoke from personal experience when he subsequently interpreted the meanings of the tree, the iron rod and the river of water in his father's vision (see 1 Nephi 15:21-29).
At the same time, Nephi's vision is not a mere rerun of Lehi's. The second clearly develops each element of the first, from different perspectives and for different purposes. Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine that Joseph Smith or others at first were aware of the nature or extent of this development, because the styles of the two texts are so different. [John W. Welch, "Connections between the Visions of Lehi and Nephi," in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon, F.A.R.M.S., 1999, pp. 49, 52]
1 Nephi 14:29 I bear record that I saw the things which my father saw (Illustration): A Comparison of Lehi's Dream and Nephi's Vision. [John Welch and Morgan Ashton, "A Comparison of Lehi's Dream and Nephi's Vision," in Charting the Book of Mormon, F.A.R.M.S., Packet 1.