relativity - understanding time: Is time simply the rate change?

Is time simply the rate of change?

If this is the case and time was created during the big bang would it be the case that the closer you get to the start of the big bang the "slower" things change until you essentially approach a static, unchanging entity at the beginning of creation?

Also, to put this definition in relation to Einstein's conclusions that "observers in motion relative to one another will measure different elapsed times for the same event." : Wouldn't it be the case that saying the difference in elapsed time is the same as saying the difference in the rate of change.

With this definition there is no point in describing the "flow" of time or the "direction" of time because time doesn't move forward but rather things simply change according to the laws of physics.

Edit: Adding clarification based on @neil's comments:

The beginning of the big bang would be very busy, but if time was then created if you go back to the very beginning it seems there is no time and there is only a static environment.

So it seems to me that saying time has a direction makes no sense. There is no direction in which time flows. There is no time; unless time is defined as change.

So we have our three dimensional objects: and then we have those objects interact. The interaction is what we experience as time. Is this correct or is time more complicated than this?

Answer

Since for some reason this question has resurfaced, I would like to point to a similar one posed later than this.

Observation of change is important to defining a concept of time. If there are no changes, no time can be defined. But it is also true that if space were not changing, no contours, we would not have a concept of space either. A total three dimensional uniformity would not register.

Our scientific time definition uses the concept of entropy to codify change in space, and entropy tells us that there exists an arrow of time.

In special relativity and general relativity time is defined as a fourth coordinate on par with the three space directions, with an extension to imaginary numbers for the mathematical transformations involved. The successful description of nature, particularly by special relativity, confirms the use of time as a coordinate on par with the space coordinates.

It is the arrow of time that distinguishes it in behavior from the other coordinates as far as the theoretical description of nature goes.