What concerns me is:
... the sub woofer that came with our Panasonic VSX-305 Home Theatre System ...
If you were sold the sub-woofer along with the [Pioneer?] surround system, then either the vendor has cheated you (in which case you should go back to them for a full refund, and go elsewhere), or the sub-woofer is one that can work with the VSX-305.
There are passive sub-woofers (e.g. the BIC America C-10 PAS) that have both input and output speaker terminals for left and right speakers. You would run wires from the amplifier's L and R Front speaker terminals to the sub-woofer's corresponding INPUT terminals, then more wires from the sub-woofer's OUTPUT terminals to your front left and right speakers.
Capacitors inside the sub-woofer block low frequencies from reaching the front L and R speakers, those low frequencies (bass) being handled by the passive sub-woofer.
Let us know if your sub-woofer looks like one of these passive types.
Daniel