Nephi is vague about when these wars will occur. The reference to “my people” suggests the wars that will annihilate them, but the reference in verse 3 to the Messiah (whose ministry will be followed by other wars) suggests that the wars in verse 2 precede Jesus’s visitation in the New World. These are the wars that occur prior to the Savior’s coming to the New World and which are recounted in the end of Alma and through Helaman.
These wars were part of the vision that Nephi received in connection with the tree of life. The current verse 2 notes that “many generations shall pass away, and there shall be great wars and contentions among my people.” The earlier version of this prophecy noted: “And it came to pass that I beheld many generations pass away, after the manner of wars and contentions in the land” (1 Ne. 12:3).
Verse 3 notes that there “shall be signs given unto my people of his birth, and also of his death and resurrection; and great and terrible shall be that day unto the wicked.… ” In the earlier recounting Nephi noted the signs of thunderings and earthquakes (1 Ne. 12:5; see also 2 Ne. 26:6).
Nephi’s vision of the mortal Messiah and the New World begins with an awkward construction that describes Jesus’s birth first, followed by the signs of his birth. Nephi conflates the signs of Christ’s birth with the signs of his death, making no real distinction between them here. Indeed, his focus is on the coming of the Messiah, which actually has two possible meanings; Christ’s birth and his appearance in Bountiful. For Nephi, the Bountiful event is the more important since it is the one that will occur to his people.
Nephi contrasts the signs of the Atoning Messiah with the deeds of those who would persecute believers. Nephi sees the destruction accompanying the Savior’s death as directly related to the wickedness of the Christians’ persecutors. While Nephi understands that this destruction is not the cleansing apocalypse of the last days, it nevertheless highlights Nephi’s understanding that Israel’s destructions were related to sin and that the future destruction at Christ’s death will also be related to cleansing the wickedness. Like Mormon in his writings, Nephi sees the coming of the Messiah as connected with all of the prophecies of his coming, both (what we would term) the first and second comings. Because he is the Messiah, he fulfills prophecy. He is prophesied to come after a period of destructive warfare, and that is just what will happen in the New World, even for his first coming.
Nephi is seeing history typologically. Just as Isaiah depicts Assyria as a tool of Yahweh’s wrath, so Nephi sees the destructions accompanying the Messiah’s death symbolically, rather than physically. Whatever the natural cause of the destruction, Nephi sees the divine cause of retribution as the most important element in his interpretation.